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
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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