A poetic, visually stunning depiction of a young woman’s travels via motorcycle with dated descriptors.
“She dreams of wandering the world.”
Striking, light-filled illustrations with the look of mid-20th-century monotone prints and informative, evocative text tell the true story of Anne-France Dautheville, a White journalist who left her home in Paris in 1972 to embark on a decadelong, international motorcycle journey that she depicted in a series of articles and memoirs. While her writing is mentioned, the focus here is on the travels themselves, told with realistic, dreamlike detail from the perspective of a lone woman imbued with a sense of awe and freedom. Obstacles involving falls from and repairs of her bike are included, and the surprise and respect she received from girls along the way help depict the view and position of women during the time period. The use of the word girl in the title is a misnomer as Dautheville was 28 when she began her travels, though this may be a translation issue (the title echoes that of Dautheville’s 1973 memoir, Une demoiselle sur une moto); more disappointing is the use of the word girl throughout the book, from both a feminist perspective and a factual one. Still, word choice aside, this is an exhilarating story of an independent Frenchwoman who challenged prevailing beliefs to follow her heart, to travel, and to observe and describe different cultures and countries (Canada, India, and Afghanistan are highlighted) from a unique, outsider’s point of view. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 67.8% of actual size.)
A poetic, visually stunning depiction of a young woman’s travels via motorcycle with dated descriptors. (biographical note, author’s note) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11629-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly laudatory.
The iconic animator introduces young readers to each “happy place” in his life.
The tally begins with his childhood home in Marceline, Missouri, and climaxes with Disneyland (carefully designed to be “the happiest place on Earth”), but the account really centers on finding his true happy place, not on a map but in drawing. In sketching out his early flubs and later rocket to the top, the fictive narrator gives Ub Iwerks and other Disney studio workers a nod (leaving his labor disputes with them unmentioned) and squeezes in quick references to his animated films, from Steamboat Willie to Winnie the Pooh (sans Fantasia and Song of the South). Eliopoulos incorporates stills from the films into his cartoon illustrations and, characteristically for this series, depicts Disney as a caricature, trademark mustache in place on outsized head even in childhood years and child sized even as an adult. Human figures default to white, with occasional people of color in crowd scenes and (ahistorically) in the animation studio. One unidentified animator builds up the role-modeling with an observation that Walt and Mickey were really the same (“Both fearless; both resourceful”). An assertion toward the end—“So when do you stop being a child? When you stop dreaming”—muddles the overall follow-your-bliss message. A timeline to the EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening offers photos of the man with select associates, rodent and otherwise. An additional series entry, I Am Marie Curie, publishes simultaneously, featuring a gowned, toddler-sized version of the groundbreaking physicist accepting her two Nobel prizes.
Blandly laudatory. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2875-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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