A visually stunning account of a fearless woman and her fight against the Nazis’ war on art.
An unlikely spy sets out to save priceless stolen artwork from the Nazis.
Rose Valland, curator at Paris’ Jeu de Paume Museum, especially loves modern art for its departure from convention and expectation. To Adolf Hitler, however, modern art is “contaminated” and “degenerate.” As World War II spreads through Europe, Hitler helps to pay for his expensive war by stealing and selling valuable artwork. Upon arriving at Rose’s museum, soldiers order everyone out except for Rose, who stays on as manager. Little do they know that she secretly speaks German and listens in on their nefarious plans. Unwittingly, Rose becomes a spy. As the Nazis catalogue and hide their treasures, Rose documents the movements of every piece of art she can, passing information to the French Resistance and putting her own life in grave danger. Richly detailed, painterly illustrations highlight the gravity of Rose’s work and some of the lesser-known struggles and losses of World War II. Particularly outstanding spreads depict an intricately detailed museum facade, a glowing cityscape, and a haunting, swirling bonfire where works of art are tossed like kindling. An appended historical note discusses the theft of innumerable treasures also stolen from Jewish people during the war, in addition to those plundered from museums like Rose’s.
A visually stunning account of a fearless woman and her fight against the Nazis’ war on art. (sources, author’s note) (Picture-book biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781534466173
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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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