An intriguing, loving biography that’s unfortunately marred by some disparaging clichés.
Stocker and Holzwarth tell the story of Evelyn Glennie, a profoundly Deaf world-renowned solo percussionist.
The story opens with Glennie’s musical childhood in the Scottish countryside. She was well on her way to becoming a skilled pianist and clarinetist when she started losing her hearing around the age of 10. Despite her doctor’s gloomy prognostication—“she’s never going to be able to play music”—young Evelyn refused to give up her dream. Drawn to her high school orchestra’s percussion section, she solicited the help of music teacher Ron Forbes, who taught her how to use her body to sense the vibrations of percussion instruments. Despite challenges, including the discrimination she faced as a Deaf person, Glennie persevered and was eventually accepted into the Royal Academy of Music in London. The story closes with a précis of her groundbreaking career achievements. Holzwarth’s illustrations—rendered in watercolor, gouache, and color pencil with digital touches—are charming and effectively portray the dynamics of sound visually. Some kids may be turned off by the wordy text and small font size. The implicit narrative framing of a disabled person as "inspirational" and having "overcome" their disability is problematic. This and the tired juxtaposition of Deaf school with failure and mainstream school with success are unfortunate blemishes in an otherwise sweet and educational book. Like too many children’s books featuring deafness, this story would appeal to hearing or oral Deaf children but might not be an appropriate choice for signing Deaf children.
An intriguing, loving biography that’s unfortunately marred by some disparaging clichés. (author's note, references) (Picture-book biography. 6-9)Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-10969-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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
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