Aims for charm and historical import but achieves neither.
Between 1927 and 1999, a house sees four families move in and depart in a picture book adapted from the author’s 2016 book for adults of the same name.
As in Virginia Lee Burton’s classic The Little House (1942), the house itself is the story’s hub. Perched lakeside near Berlin, this house alternately feels “happy,” “abandoned and unloved,” and “alive.” Descriptions of the residents are similarly romantic: “a kind doctor and his cheery wife”; “the musical family”; “a man with a fluffy hat.” How jarring, then, for the families to be coming and going due to events such as genocide, and how much more jarring for those events to be only vaguely implied. Little boys grow from playing in the sand to wearing Hitler Youth uniforms, but the uniforms aren’t identified. World War II and the Berlin Wall go unnamed too, while Nazis are called only “angry men.” The fluffy-hatted man “spie[s] on his neighbors”—huh? Why? This evasive piece sidesteps atrocities and even bare historical details. Readers who already know enough pertinent history to understand Harding’s subtle allusions aren’t the same readers who’d enjoy a lakeside house’s seasonal and emotional cycles. An author’s note supplies names and dates but still never delves into explaining the Nazis, Hitler Youth, or the Berlin Wall; it identifies which families were Jewish but never says why that’s relevant. Teckentrup’s textured artwork is similarly allusive, including a terrifying scene of aerial bombardment and another of a line of tanks but still failing to fill in the narrative gaps. All characters depicted have pale skin.
Aims for charm and historical import but achieves neither. (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1274-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy picture-book primer on the Queen of Tejano music
Nearly 25 years after her death, the musical origin and cultural impact of Mexican American performer Selena Quintanilla are celebrated.
The story of Selena, as the singer and songwriter is still known, has been told before but not for so young an audience. López splits the difference between a fawning tribute and a straightforward recounting of accomplishments by working hard to paint the picture of the artist’s childhood and what led to her musical achievements. Amid Escobar’s exceptionally detailed illustrative work, it’s made clear how both the Quintanilla family’s immersion in music and Selena’s enduring work ethic led to her band’s success. There’s a lot of text in the book, but it’s smartly framed within two-page spreads, and very little of it feels extraneous. Fans new to Selena’s work may be surprised to learn that she was not a native speaker when she began performing in Spanish and that early in her career, sexism within the Tejano tradition was an issue. The artwork captures clothing and home furnishings of the time, such as Selena’s cassette tapes, her father’s guayabera shirts, and the singer’s iconic stage costumes. Not surprisingly, there’s not much dwelling on the circumstances of the singer’s murder other than an explainer page and a mention in a timeline in the backmatter, which also offers other cultural context. The simultaneously publishing Spanish edition is a solid and careful translation preserving information, context, and nuance. (This book was originally reviewed under the title Selena.)
A worthy picture-book primer on the Queen of Tejano music (Picture book/biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0977-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
This accessible, kid-sized portrayal of Stein and Toklas’ famous relationship is a charmer.
A warming look at two paragons of American modernism.
With spare, free-verse poems and whimsical, wonderfully upbeat illustrations, Robillard and Katstaller bring to young readers the enchanting story of American expats Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris. Robillard concentrates largely on Stein’s domestic life, describing how she and her brother Leo, then Alice, resided at 27 rue de Fleurus at the turn of the 20th century and famously collected paintings by Matisse, Cézanne, Gauguin, “the one and only Pablo Picasso,” and other masters, creating a salon for all kinds of visual and literary artists that would come to have a huge influence on modernism. Robillard writes: “Gertrude knew when a painting had something special to say. / Because she was Gertrude Stein. / Gertrude Stein, the genius.” While Robillard elides the romantic aspect of Stein’s relationship with “her partner, Alice”—and the fact that they were Jews living in World War II Paris—she takes great care to show how the intimacy of their partnership contributed to Stein’s mammoth literary output. Alongside Katstaller’s winningly childlike renderings of famous paintings and well-known portraits of Stein, Toklas, and their dog, Basket, Robillard includes quotes from Stein’s best-known works, offering a tantalizing introduction to her work while humanizing her ingenuity.
This accessible, kid-sized portrayal of Stein and Toklas’ famous relationship is a charmer. (timeline, sources, author’s note) (Picture book/biography/poetry. 6-9)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0056-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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