Inspiringly shows how Maria Tallchief persisted and made her dreams come true.
Maria Tallchief is an American ballet legend, but she came from a humble beginning.
Elizabeth “Betty” Marie Tall Chief grew up on the Osage reservation in northeastern Oklahoma at a time when Osage children were told not to speak their language and to forget their tribal customs even as they enjoyed uncommon wealth due to their reservation’s rich oil deposits. She and her family attended secret powwows, and the songs’ powerful rhythms remained with Betty all her life. After moving to California at 8, she began dance school. Not only was she good at ballet, but she moved ahead academically. But Betty was bullied for her name, so she changed it to one word: Tallchief. Betty “lived and breathed the art of ballet,” listening when her mother offered wise words and encouragement to “dance with all your heart….You shouldn’t just expect a role to be handed to you.” Years later, when she traveled around the world, dancing in famous ballets, she again changed her name from Betty to a variation of her middle name Maria but resisted advice to change her surname, retaining it to honor her family and her Osage identity. Day (Upper Skagit) clearly shows that even as Tallchief became a star in the world of ballet, she never forgot her roots and gives readers necessary history and context to understand their importance. Flint’s black-and-white illustrations excel at depictions of Tallchief in motion.
Inspiringly shows how Maria Tallchief persisted and made her dreams come true. (author's note, bibliography) (Biography. 6-9)Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11580-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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