Peek behind the scenes and celebrate a woman whose achievements shaped Disney magic.
Steering clear of the spotlight, Lillian Disney (neé Bounds) found her own way to leave her mark on the Disney legacy.
Born the last of 10 siblings in 1899, Lilly had a knack for finding magic in the everyday despite her tough beginnings—after her father died when she was 17, she helped her mother make ends meet. She stumbled upon the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio after moving to Los Angeles. Though women were rarely hired in animation at the time, Walt and Roy Disney took a chance on Lilly. She became an inker and a painter, filling animators’ drawings with pigment, cell by cell. Enamored by her boss’s creativity, Lilly fell in love with Walt, and they were soon married. When Walt sketched a cartoon mouse named Mortimer, Lillian suggested that “Mickey” would be a catchier name. Though Lilly preferred to stay behind the scenes while supporting her husband, she left a lasting impact on the company: dreaming up cartoon ideas, testing theme park rides, and even innovating Disneyland’s trash-collection system. Richman sprinkles pixie dust on one woman’s influence on the Disney we know today; still, young readers eager to take center stage may be frustrated with Lillian’s willingness to play second fiddle to Walt. Digital illustrations are rendered with a muted palette that evokes the period but feels a bit dull, directly depicting the events described in the text rather than building on them.
Peek behind the scenes and celebrate a woman whose achievements shaped Disney magic. (author’s note, timeline, sources) (Picture-book biography. 5-8)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781665962742
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
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
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