FASHIONISTA

A kaleidoscopic tribute to fashionistas of all colors, shapes, sizes, and ages.

Clarke creates a runway of fashion-loving folks of various skin tones who rock their styles with verve and vitality alongside verse that rolls off the tongue and delights the ear. The characters’ lack of facial features invites readers to imagine who might be wearing each outfit (and how they feel) and suggests that anyone of any background can embrace their bodies as a canvas on which to write their own artistic story. When the narrator chimes: “Be your / BOLD-BIG-SELF, / brave in bright brilliant blue hair: deliciously different, dramatic and daring,” a brown-faced individual with textured, electric blue hair appears in silhouette. Some of the images clearly represent children, like a skirt made of flowers above a pair of brown legs with feet shod in frilly socks and ruby sequined Mary Janes. Others portray more seasoned individuals, like the two elderly, dark-skinned people using canes and wearing neckties, dress shirts, and fedoras with colors that echo the patterns in their clothes. Although the bold-colored backgrounds change from page to page, their singular color makes Clarke’s amazing, unique mixed-media collage illustrations of people—“CHIC-A-BOOM! CHIC-A-BAM!”—pop and announce their presence. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A luminous picture book that exudes joy as it celebrates the freedom to be the one and only you.