Thursday, May 4, 2023

Dressing Up the Stars by Jeanne Walker Harvey, illustrated by Diana Toledano - ESSENTIAL

Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head
 by Jeanne Walker Harvey illustrated by Diana Toledano.
PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHY Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing Division. 2022. $19. 9781534451056

 BUYING ADVISORY: EL - ESSENTIAL 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH 

Dressing Up the Stars is a biographical sketch of the famous Hollywood Costume Designer Edith Head. It begins with her early life growing up in the dust bowl of Nevada. She was always dressing up her pets and asking neighbors for scraps of fabric. When she and her mother moved to Los Angeles it opened her eyes to new opportunities. She never gave up her determination to find her passion for costume design and excel at it. 

I loved the flow of the story. Enough time is spent on each area of the timeline of her life. It helps to paint the big picture. They also do a good job highlighting her failures as well as her successes. The final page gives a more in-depth biography highlighting her achievements. It made me want to do more research on the films she created costumes for and more about her career. She was a female in a mostly all-male Hollywood profession. She pioneered women to be in costume design. 

Emilee-Teacher Librarian

No comments:

Post a Comment

Welcome to Kiss the Book Jr.!

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...