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Loading... Little Frida: A Story of Frida Kahloby Anthony Browne
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Sweet picture book which details Frida Kahlo early childhood, after she recovered from polio and the imaginary friend who helped her escape her sadness and inspired her artistic life. Vibrant illustrations by Anthony Browne accompany the story. ( ) Browne’s illustrations in this little book about Frida Kahlo as a young child are stunning; however, I found his text on how, after a bout of polio at age six, 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. In it, 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. (Browne explains how Frida first met this friend: After going through a door that she drew in the condensation on window glass, she found herself in a desert. A second door in a dairy opened for her, and, after passing through it, she fell deep into the earth [seemingly metaphorically into the core of her being] where the magical girl in white—another more able self—was met.) This other Frida (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. no reviews | add a review
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"Following a bout with polio at the age of six, Frida Kahlo's life was marked by pain and loneliness. In real life she walked with a limp, but in her dreams she flew. One day her imagination took her on a journey to a girl in white who could dance without pain and hold her secrets, an indelible figure who would find her way into Frida's art in years to come. Inspired by Frida Kahlo's diary, Anthony Browne captures the essence of the artist's early flights of fancy and depicts both Frida and her imaginary friend in vivid illustrations evoking Kahlo's iconic style. A note at the end offers a brief biography of the artist who has intrigued art lovers the world over."--Amazon.com No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)759.972The arts Painting History, geographic treatment, biography Other geographic areas North America Mexico and Central AmericaLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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