No glass slippers: just women with brains, skills, and dedication. Real princesses indeed.
Princesses rock!
Princess admirers should enjoy these brief, laudatory profiles of 15 modern-day royals from monarchies across the globe—among them one duchess and four young heirs apparent from Western Europe. The book spotlights their varied achievements and talents and the important work they do for their countries and people. For example, Princess Abze Djigma of Burkina Faso is a trained engineer who created a solar-powered light for her nation’s citizens who lacked access to electricity. Each profile is headed by an emphatic statement (“Real princesses are LAWYERS,” “Real Princesses are ENVIRONMENTALISTS”). The book expands readers’ worldviews: They’ll discover princesses live almost everywhere and are racially and ethnically diverse. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is included (as is Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales), though her profile notes that she and the Duke of Sussex “are no longer working members of the royal family,” it doesn’t mention that the couple now reside in the United States. Some readers may wish for a pronunciation guide and photographs of the princesses. The writing is straightforward and upbeat but generalized. Some facts aren’t explained, e.g., why Princess Keisha Omilana of Nigeria lives in London. Illustrations are bright, cheery, and colorful, depicting princesses posed against themed settings; background figures are racially diverse. Some princesses wear national dress. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
No glass slippers: just women with brains, skills, and dedication. Real princesses indeed. (author’s note, glossary, “who said it?” quiz, “dream big questions,” websites with further information) (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781250751430
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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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