Maya Angelou

August 1, 2016

Gr 1-3-Very simple biographies introduce famous women to young readers. Each selection highlights the accomplishments of its subject but does not go into detail. The lack of specificity, however, makes difficult topics more manageable for a child audience. In Maya Angelou, for example, the text says that Maya's mother's boyfriend "attacked her" and as a result Maya did not speak for five years. A significant event in Angelou's life is included but in an age-appropriate way. The illustration style for each book is different and seems chosen to suit the subject. In Maya Angelou, cartoon-style images appear strong and solid, reflecting Angelou's determination to overcome obstacles in her life. Amelia Earhart employs an airier, less representational art style that matches Earhart's sense of adventure and mystery. Observant readers will find small jokes, such as in a suburban scene in Earhart where most houses have a car parked alongside but one house has a rocket ship. Back matter includes photographs and a few more details about the topic person. The books are factual, without invented dialogue, but no sources are listed. Briticisms appear in Earhart, with terms such as learnt rather than learned. VERDICT These books serve as attractive overviews of the people profiled, but children will need further resources to get a full perspective of the subjects' lives.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
"There's nothing I can't be," young Maya thinks, and then shows, in this profile for newly independent readers, imported from Spain.The inspirational message is conveyed through a fine skein of biographical details. It begins with her birth in St. Louis and the prejudice she experienced growing up in a small Arkansas town and closes with her reading of a poem "about her favorite thing: hope" at Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration. In between, it mentions the (unspecified) "attack" by her mother's boyfriend and subsequent elective muteness she experienced as a child, as well as some of the varied pursuits that preceded her eventual decision to become a writer. Kaiser goes on in a closing spread to recap Angelou's life and career, with dates, beneath a quartet of portrait photos. Salaberria's simple illustrations, filled with brown-skinned figures, are more idealized than photorealistic, but, though only in the cover image do they make direct contact with readers', Angelou's huge eyes are an effective focal point in each scene. The message is similar in the co-published Amelia Earhart, written by Ma Isabel Sanchez Vegara (and also translated by Pitt), but the pictures are more fanciful as illustrator Mariadiamantes endows the aviator with a mane of incandescent orange hair and sends her flying westward (in contradiction of the text and history) on her final around-the-world flight. Stirring encouragement for all "little people" with "big dreams." (Picture book/biography. 5-7)

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August 1, 2016
Grades K-2 First published in Spain, the Little People, Big Dreams series spotlights notable women. Each short, simply written biography begins in girlhood, conveys the adult's significant achievements, and ends with a bit of inspiration. The striking artwork illustrating each text has a strong graphic look, stylized in Amelia Earhart and folk-art inspired in Maya Angelou. In a simply worded, straightforward presentation, Maya Angelou introduces Maya as a child sent to live in Arkansas, where she experienced racism as well as a physical attack that left her unwilling to speak for a time. She came to love the written word, and as an adult, she traveled widely, worked to help all people get treated equally, and wrote powerful stories and poems. Each book concludes with a few photos, a brief time line, and a biographical summary for older readers. Although both books are attractive, the relative scarcity of books on Angelou makes this a particularly good choice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)