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Module 5: Other Award Winners


Genre:
Picturebook/ Pura Belpre Award

 Book Summary:
Using mixed media, as well as multiple languages (English and Spanish), Viva Frida captures the essence of Frida Kahlo's desire to explore and create the world around her.

Morales, Y., & O'Meara, T. (2014). Viva Frida (First ed.). New York: Roaring Brook Press.

 Impressions:
As colorful as the woman it portrays, Viva Frida is somewhat abstract in concept; yet the style mirrors the art and life of the artist it seeks to honor.  Though the words are simple, the attention to detail is admirable and worth viewing over and over again.

Professional Review:
"This luminescent homage to Frida Kahlo doesn’t hew to her artwork’s mood but entrances on its own merit.
Adults will recognize Kahlo’s signature eyebrows, but readers of all ages will be caught immediately by the bewitchingly bright colors and detailed photographs. Morales makes her figures from steel, polymer clay and wool, and the illustrations come together with acrylic paint, digital manipulation and O’Meara’s dramatically angled photographs of the scenes. Kahlo has the thin, posable arms and stiff legs of a fashion doll, with earrings, a necklace and flowered dresses. Her vibe is contented curiosity as she and her monkey explore a box and find a skeleton marionette. A second thread shows Kahlo as two-dimensional (possibly doll-Kahlo’s dream?), rescuing a wounded deer; doll-Kahlo then includes the deer in a self-portrait. Vivid textures and high-saturation colors enthrall. However, the text (in English and Spanish) is platitudinous and vague: “I realize… / that… / I feel / And I understand… / that I love / And create / And so… / I live!” It would be impossible (and undesirable) to translate the violence, pain and anger of Kahlo’s work for an audience this young; these illustrations, while including some of her visual motifs, don’t even try. The final spread is downright festive. Morales’ author’s note (also in English and Spanish) provides a brief biographical sketch that makes clear the artist’s profound effect on her.
Out of context, visually radiant; as an introduction to Kahlo herself, almost irrelevant. (Picture book. 3-6)"
Kirkus (2014). [Review for the book Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales].   Retrieved from  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/yuyi-morales-2/viva-frida/

Library Uses:
Yuyi Morales, an amazing female artist in her own right, has worked on two picture books honoring revolutionary female artists.  In addition to writing and illustrating Viva Frida, she has also illustrated a book about Georgia O'Keefe, Georgia in Hawaii written by Amy Novesky.  Using these two books to do a study on female artists and illustrators would yield interesting discussions for students.

Readalikes:
Frida by Jonah Winter
Frida Kahlo and her Animalitos by Monica Brown
Little People, Big Dreams: Frida Kahlo by Ma Isabel Sanchez Vegara

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