Too sketchy and impersonal to last; at best a stopgap to meet the current rush of interest.
A quick profile of “the longest-serving heir in British history.”
Though as bland as its subject’s public persona and so compressed that the multiple schools “little Charles Philip Arthur George” attended on his way to college are reduced to one—illustrated with a historically unlikely view of the young prince being paraded before a racially diverse line of fellow students—this thumbnail biography does mention his two marriages and the protests that greeted his early residence in Wales. On more worthwhile notes, it also points to his creation of the Prince’s Trust (this paired to a more plausibly inclusive group of beneficiaries) and justifiably makes much of his devotion to environmental causes. Also, Hunt gets the royal ears, hair, and blank expression just right in the cartoon views of Charles in outdoor settings, waving at crowds, and (in earlier years, anyway) posing with various family members. An afterword with four photos adds a bit more detail to this view of an earnest, low-key figure who, following “a lifetime of preparing for the job,” ascended to the throne after his long-lived mother’s death and “hoped not to let anyone down.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Too sketchy and impersonal to last; at best a stopgap to meet the current rush of interest. (Picture-book biography. 6-8)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780711286696
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
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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