Warm tribute to an unjustly obscure artist.
One African American woman cartoonist pays respects to the inspirational creativity and persistence of another.
Ormes (1911-1985), born Zelda Jackson, realized as a child that “adventure didn’t have to be caught—it could be created.” She went on to become a journalist, was probably the first Black woman to have a nationally syndicated cartoon, and, as the creator of “Torchy Brown” and “Patty-Jo ’n’ Ginger,” was a perceptive commentator on both the Great Migration and the early civil rights movement. The author ends with Ormes’ invention of the latter comic’s spunky child character but goes on in a brief afterword to highlight her likewise venturesome design for an upscale, brown-hued Patty-Jo doll in the late 1940s. Though there is but one reproduced example of Ormes’ cartoon work, the bright, cleanly drawn pop-art illustrations make clear her focus, confidence, and intelligence, casting her as an alert observer who fearlessly takes in whatever is going on around her (even placing her inside the ring while covering a prizefight for an early assignment). Visible faces in the art are all Black or brown. Traci N. Todd’s Holding Her Own (2023), illustrated by Shannon Wright and aimed at a slightly older audience, offers more biographical detail, but both of these profiles are silent about Ormes’ later life. Still, as a role model for creative achievement, she merits all the attention she can get. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Warm tribute to an unjustly obscure artist. (author’s note, selected sources, photographs) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-42654-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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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