A powerful paean to both the space program and a noteworthy artist.
The 1969 Apollo 10 mission—considered the “dress rehearsal” for Apollo 11 and the moon landing—inspires Alma Thomas, a Black abstract painter, to create an iconic painting, Snoopy Sees a Sunrise.
Though space travel is serious business, the astronauts give their spacecraft playful nicknames. Apollo 10’s command module is dubbed Charlie Brown and the lunar module, Snoopy. Accordingly, Alma selects a fitting name for her work. Jacket art and endpapers artfully introduce the dual narrative; against the black of deep space float bright, confettilike shapes representing Alma’s signature “stripes.” Skillfully employing mixed-media and handmade scans, Crews uses different styles for each story. As the astronauts prepare for launch, the art looks fairly straightforward; as Alma prepares to paint, the palette turns colorful, with softer, rounded lines. The spare but informative text moves effortlessly between the parallel stories of the moon mission and Alma’s painting. Even the description of abstract expressionism (“Thomas…takes in impressions that she observes and then expresses those things in a picture”) is clear and age-appropriate. Crews’ visually arresting design takes advantage of the dramatic vistas seen by the astronauts: The lunar module hurdles around a tilted gray moonscape, and when astronaut Thomas Stafford exclaims, “You ought to see it up here,” multiple vintage TVs display images of the fragile and beautiful Earth. By contrast, Alma Thomas’ interpretation is one of glowing colors surrounded with a pink wash of early morning.
A powerful paean to both the space program and a noteworthy artist. (biography of Thomas, history of the Apollo program and its tradition of selecting mascots, photographs, source notes, bibliography, further reading) (Informational picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798765643471
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: today
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
An inspirational look at one girl’s quest to make sure that all skin tones are visible and available in the classroom.
A Black girl’s simple observation propels her into activism.
Woodard, who launched the More Than Peach Project—which arranges for classrooms and children in need to receive kits that include art supplies and boxes of multicultural crayons (crayons in a variety of skin tones)—relates the incident that sparked her journey. As the book begins, she is dropped off at school and notices that her family’s skin tone differs from that of her classmates. While it is clear that she is one of a few children of color at school, that difference isn’t really felt until her friends start asking for the “skin-color” crayon when they mean peach. She’s bothered that no one else seems to notice that skin comes in many colors, so she devises a unique way of bringing everyone’s attention to that fact. With support from her family and her school, she encourages her fellow classmates to rethink their language and starts an initiative to ensure that everyone’s skin tone is represented in each crayon box. Appealing, realistic artwork depicts Woodard’s experiences, while endpapers feature More Than Peach crayon boxes and childlike illustrations of kids of different ethnicities doing various activities. The story is stirring and will motivate budding activists. (This book was reviewed digitally; the review has been updated for factual accuracy.)
An inspirational look at one girl’s quest to make sure that all skin tones are visible and available in the classroom. (note from Woodard, information on Woodard’s journey into activism, instructions on starting a drive) (Picture-book biography. 6-10)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-80927-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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