Cover Image: Little Frida

Little Frida

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Member Reviews

My daughter learned about Frida Kahlo earlier this school year through a Scholastic magazine, and wanted to learn more about her life. I'm a huge Frida fan, but the adult biographies I have are not always kid friendly. So we were excited to read this book.

Unfortunately, it goes less into Frida's life and more about a confusing dream sequence. It does touch a bit on Frida's disability, and there is a short blurb afterwards. All in all, however, my daughter knows no more about Frida than she did before.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

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Learning about Frida was wonderful. The images were beautiful. The story was a bit of a challenge for my kids to follow. I say maybe for some older children... But definitely pick it up as it's short and a great book on Frida's life.

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Browne is a picture book artist who delves into the internal lives of his characters and Kahlo is the perfect subject to explore. Her unique sensibility and imagination is reflected in his dreamscapes, which immerse the reader. Completely charmed by this book.

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I was excited about this selection because I have read so many great picture book biographies lately, but this one didn't live up to my expectations. The whole thing was a bit too surreal for me and I didn't feel like it would captivate the kids. I was looking at the end for a historical note about Frida, and I didn't see one in this ARC. However, a fellow Goodreads reviewer says that this does has an informational page, so that's a positive.

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This book featuring Frida in her early childhood was a bit hard to read. I think that the first person view is difficult for a child. It's easier with he/she. The story just seemed confusing. She wanted a plan, all she got were silly wings, but then she blew on the glass and drew a door and stepped through. It was a bit difficult for my 6 year old to follow.

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Browne’s illustrations in this little book about Frida Kahlo as a young child are stunning; however, I found his text on how she met her imaginary friend pretty flat and underwhelming overall.

Browne provides a simple first-person account of Frida’s experiences around the time she contracted polio at age six. In this account, Frida tells how the disease withered her right leg, prevented her from running, and made her the target of bullies. Her close relationship with her father, who had her work as a photographer’s assistant, is addressed, as is her sense of separateness from others and her desire for the freedom of flight. The text and illustrations suggest that Kahlo’s imaginary friend, who could dance and move in a way Frida could not, was her deep, inner self. (The reader learns how Frida first met this friend: After passing through a door that she had drawn in the condensation on window glass and then another door in a dairy, Frida fell deep into the earth [perhaps a metaphor for a journey into the core of her being] where a magical girl in white—another more able self—was waiting to meet her.) This other girl (in appearance, a twin) later figured in the artist’s paintings.

Compared to Jonah Winter’s marvellous, surreal, and richly illustrated picture book biography of Kahlo, Browne’s work disappoints. Its focus is just too narrow, and his images of Frida as a child bear little resemblance to the mature woman.

This is an interesting but hardly essential book. The illustrations rate five stars; the text, barely two.

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