Sunday, March 7, 2021

Little People, Big Dreams: Aretha Franklin by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Amy Blackwell - ESSENTIAL


Little People, Big Dreams: Aretha Franklin
by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Amy Blackwell
. PICTURE BOOK. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (The Quarto Group), 2020. $16. 9780711246867

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) - ESSENTIAL


AUDIENCE: AVERAGE


Elegant in its simplicity, this is the story of the key moments and accomplishments in Aretha Franklin’s life. The illustrations move through the decades to include pops of color and pattern that convey the style of the time. 


With just enough to get a reader interested, this book is the perfect length for young readers. It provided the broad strokes of Aretha’s life and hopefully a reader will go on to learn more after this book. The best part for me was that the biography at the end of the story did not just reiterate the information from the book but added a layer of reality that the storyline didn’t have. Teen pregnancies and a mother who left was information available in the readable biography at the end.  


Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher


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Welcome! Kiss the Book Jr. is for board books, picture books, early readers, and chapter books.  Also, any novels and non-fiction that we ag...