This enthusiastic tribute to the modern pop idol is sure to satisfy Swifties.
Taylor Swift’s passion awakens when she picks up her first guitar as a child in Pennsylvania.
When she learns that her favorite country music stars got their start in Nashville, Taylor takes a spring break trip to Tennessee, personally delivering CDs of her original music to record label offices. At home, she jumps at any chance to perform her favorite country hits, but her real joy comes from songwriting. After she moves to Nashville as a teen, a music executive sees her perform and gives her the opportunity to record her debut album. Though Taylor’s star is rising, her relationship with her mother keeps her grounded, and she takes time to treat her fans to special parties and surprises. The text is peppered with song references, cleverly mirroring the easter eggs that Taylor famously hides for fans. This gushing biography briefly references (and perhaps overstates) Taylor’s efforts to encourage voter registration and speak against racial injustice (“She’s a trailblazer!”) but fails to mention a yearslong battle to own the rights to her master recordings and help protect young artists entering the industry. Cheerful, painterly illustrations depict a smiling Taylor from childhood to the present, with careful considerations of hairstyles and clothing choices that align with the eras of her life. Some background characters represent a variety of skin tones and body shapes.
This enthusiastic tribute to the modern pop idol is sure to satisfy Swifties. (Picture-book biography. 5-9)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780593566718
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Golden Books/Random
Review Posted Online: yesterday
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
Self-serving to be sure but also chock-full of worthy values and sentiments.
The junior senator from California introduces family and friends as everyday superheroes.
The endpapers are covered with cascades of, mostly, early childhood snapshots (“This is me contemplating the future”—caregivers of toddlers will recognize that abstracted look). In between, Harris introduces heroes in her life who have shaped her character: her mom and dad, whose superpowers were, respectively, to make her feel special and brave; an older neighbor known for her kindness; grandparents in India and Jamaica who “[stood] up for what’s right” (albeit in unspecified ways); other relatives and a teacher who opened her awareness to a wider world; and finally iconic figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley who “protected people by using the power of words and ideas” and whose examples inspired her to become a lawyer. “Heroes are…YOU!” she concludes, closing with a bulleted Hero Code and a timeline of her legal and political career that ends with her 2017 swearing-in as senator. In group scenes, some of the figures in the bright, simplistic digital illustrations have Asian features, some are in wheelchairs, nearly all are people of color. Almost all are smiling or grinning. Roe provides everyone identified as a role model with a cape and poses the author, who is seen at different ages wearing an identifying heart pin or decoration, next to each.
Self-serving to be sure but also chock-full of worthy values and sentiments. (Picture book/memoir. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-984837-49-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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