Review_CHILDREN’S
76 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ APRIL 6, 2020
The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor
Amy Alznauer, illus. by Ping Zhu. Enchanted Lion, $18.95 (64p)
ISBN 978-1-59270-295-4
Alznauer treats writer Flannery O’Connor’s life with
exceptional delicacy and depth of feeling. Regularly chastised
by her mother, the girl devotes herself to her chickens, gaining
brief fame by training one to walk backward. “There was
something about strangeness that
made people sit up and look,” she
discovers. As an adult, O’Connor is
diagnosed with lupus, and her fame as
a writer who “wanted to wake readers
up like a rooster crowing” grows as her
health deteriorates. At last, living at
home with her mother, she fills her
yard with peacocks, whose unearthly beauty—like “a thousand
haloed suns”—intoxicates her. Using bold swaths of color,
Zhu often shows O’Connor from far off, visualizing her isola-
tion; the birds, by contrast, sit front and center, their plumage
crisp and colorful. Alznauer understands her subject’s instinc-
tive attentiveness to the beauty of anything that doesn’t fit in:
“She felt her heart filling up with grief but even more with
wonder. How strange to find something so large and beautiful
rushing in with all that sadness.” Ages 4–8. (June)When Emily Was Small
Lauren Soloy. Tundra, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7352-6606-3
Based on an autobiographical story by Emily Carr, this
portrait of the famous Canadian painter memorializes a child-
hood moment when her sense of perception sharpened. Little
Emily is already running through a garden when Soloy intro-
duces her stopping by a bush loaded with white currants “so
near to see-through—all veins and juice and glints of seeds.”
In her favorite place by the fence, Emily sits with eyes closed.
Images of repressive household life—an admonishing adult,
a clock—leave her head like smoke. Suddenly, “bumpety, the
silence was filled with presence.” The silhouette of a wolf
appears: it is the Wild, whose exciting gaze meets Emily’s
own. “Hello, Wild,” Emily replies. “I am Small.” They regard
layered hues and “how sunlight glows in every shadow,” and
the Wild tells her: “You are bigger than you know!” Emily’s
story is more than a fantasy of escape—her inward journey
has an almost spiritual dimension, and Soloy succeeds in
communicating her fresh, immediate sense of connection to
life. Ages 4–8. (June)Itzhak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin
Tracy Newman, illus. by Abigail Halpin. Abrams, $18.99 (40p)
ISBN 978-1-4197-4110-4
“The Perlmans’ tiny apartment seemed ordinary.... Yet alittle kitchen radio transformed this simple home.” More
significantly, this particular radio transformed the world by
inspiring young Itzhak Perlman, renowned violinist and
beloved public figure. Newman conducts readers through
Perlman’s childhood in Tel Aviv, revealing his resilience in the
face of obstacles, including, at age four, a bout of polio that left
him reliant on crutches or braces. “Running around the block,
riding a bicycle, jumping off a diving board—all these ordi-
nary things Itzhak would never be able to do. But Itzhak...
knew the melody inside him gave him a different gift.” After
growing serious about the violin, the boy performs at age six
and solos by age 10. Newman’s appealing story culminates
with the teenage Perlman’s life-changing 1958 performance
on the Ed Sullivan Show. Halpin’s colorful illustrations of a
young Perlman, ribboned by swirling staves of musical
scores, reflect his vivid inner world and warm-hearted life.
Includes a timeline, notes, and bibliography. Ages 4–8. (May)Through the Wardrobe:
How C.S. Lewis Created Narnia
Lina Maslo. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-
06-279856-5
In this picture book biography, Maslo crafts a portrait of
how Clive Staples “Jack” Lewis’s upbringing and experiences
influenced the creation of Narnia, relaying how tragedies in his
life made him yearn for a better world. As Jack progresses from
an imaginative child into a disillusioned adolescent, bullied
in boarding school and wounded in WWI before finally
becoming a faith-filled author and professor, Maslo conveys his
journey in an accessibly lyrical style (“But when Jack was nine,
his mother became sick and died. And his wonder-filled world
began to crumble”). Stippled, crosshatched, and otherwise
detailed illustrations done in dip pen, India inks, and acrylics
on watercolor paper provide a lushly colored look into Lewis’s
world, complementing the peaks and valleys of his creative
and personal endeavors. Additional facts, trivia about Lewis’s
inspirations, and a bibliography flesh out the back matter. A
heartening story, and a rich supplemental read for young Narnia
fans. Ages 4–8. (May)Where Are You, Agnes?
Tessa McWatt, illus. by Zuzanna Celej. Groundwood, $18.95 (44p)
ISBN 978-1-77306-140-5
McWatt uses abstract artist Agnes Martin’s (1912–2004)
childhood relationship with her grandfather to view her early
understanding of creation and ephemerality in this fictionalized
account. After he covers the girl’s eyes as she regards a pale
rainbow over a field, Martin’s grandfather asks, “Is it still
beautiful?” Following that moment, young Martin develops
an interest in the fleeting—she sketches “the feeling of the sunInspired Lives
Picture book biographies of makers who made a difference.Review_CHILDREN’S