Descriptions, Reviews, etc.
Description:
Beloved and trailblazing author Judy Blume comes to life in this poetic picture book about her childhood.
Judy Blume is known for fearlessly discussing topics that were once considered taboo. As a young girl, Judy was not encouraged to share her feelings, so instead she invented stories as a way to understand the world around her. Growing up Jewish, during and in the aftermath of WWII, dramatically shaped Judy's childhood. Her younger years were full of fear. Judy processed her conflicted emotions by making up stories where
she could control the conflict as she worked through challenging life scenarios. These stories became the subjects of the books she later published for children, tweens, teens, and adults including
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret,
Freckle Juice, and the Fudge series. This inspiring collection of poems celebrates the childhood years of Judy Blume, one of the most beloved American writers of all time.
Review Quotes: "Each poem here isolates a single moment or theme, with huge variety in form and length--there is rhyme, free verse, acrostic, and even a smattering of first-person poems...The acrylic and collage illustrations are the real star here, and the precisely layered full-page spreads in vibrant pastel colors and textures defy two-dimensionality. The scrapbook-like quality of the layout gracefully mirrors the poems themselves, marrying moments of Blume's youth with Alko's own love of the author in a work of art that will enchant Blume fans young and old."--BCCB
"Peppered with references to titles that ought to be familiar to American readers of any age, this set of short free-verse poems takes a biographical slant to celebrate a truly iconic writer....
'In a way, Judy Blume helped raise me, ' Alko writes in her personal afterword. There are millions who would relate."
--Booklist "Alko's illustrations in acrylic and collage on Bristol board are the highlight, incorporating fragments of book pages in images whose moods shift from the fancifulness of young Judy's imagination to the mournfulness (and dreariness) of family shivas."
--The Horn Book "Alko's detail-rich biographical poems and charismatic acrylic and collage illustrations result in an exuberant homage to Judy Blume.... Text and art alike create a smart portrait of a literary star."
--Publishers Weekly "Seli-na Alko has writ-ten and illus-trat-ed a tru-ly great pic-ture book ded-i-cat-ed to the inim-itable children's book author Judy Blume."--
The Jewish Book Council
