Viva Frida

Starred review from June 16, 2014
Readers will recognize Morales’s (Niño Wrestles the World) handmade Frida Kahlo doll from Kahlo’s self-portraits—Morales’s doll has the same haunting beauty and direct gaze, and she wears the same Mexican peasant clothing. In a series of composed photographs, Frida gazes at her pet monkey—another handmade creation—who slips the artist a key. The key opens a locked box, which holds a marionette, a jointed skeleton. Spare, lyrical text is set in English and, in fainter type, in Spanish, and each page turn reveals a new word or phrase. “Juego/ I play,” Frida says, manipulating the marionette while the monkey sits on her shoulder. Now a paper cutout, Frida is shown dreaming, rescuing an injured fawn, then awakening, restored to doll form, as her husband—a plump, affectionate Diego Rivera—gives her a kiss on the cheek. “¡Vivo!” she says. “I live!” Frida is presented less as a historical figure than as an icon who represents the life Morales holds sacred; Frida lives because she loves and creates. A detailed biography is included. Ages 4–8. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlottte Sheedy Literary Agency.

August 15, 2014
This luminescent homage to Frida Kahlo doesn't hew to her artwork's mood but entrances on its own merit. Adults will recognize Kahlo's signature eyebrows, but readers of all ages will be caught immediately by the bewitchingly bright colors and detailed photographs. Morales makes her figures from steel, polymer clay and wool, and the illustrations come together with acrylic paint, digital manipulation and O'Meara's dramatically angled photographs of the scenes. Kahlo has the thin, posable arms and stiff legs of a fashion doll, with earrings, a necklace and flowered dresses. Her vibe is contented curiosity as she and her monkey explore a box and find a skeleton marionette. A second thread shows Kahlo as two-dimensional (possibly doll-Kahlo's dream?), rescuing a wounded deer; doll-Kahlo then includes the deer in a self-portrait. Vivid textures and high-saturation colors enthrall. However, the text (in English and Spanish) is platitudinous and vague: "I realize... / that... / I feel / And I understand... / that I love / And create / And so... / I live!" It would be impossible (and undesirable) to translate the violence, pain and anger of Kahlo's work for an audience this young; these illustrations, while including some of her visual motifs, don't even try. The final spread is downright festive. Morales' author's note (also in English and Spanish) provides a brief biographical sketch that makes clear the artist's profound effect on her.Out of context, visually radiant; as an introduction to Kahlo herself, almost irrelevant. (Picture book. 3-6)

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Starred review from August 1, 2014

Gr 1 Up-Kahlo's unusual life story, background, and art have made her a frequent topic of biographies. Morales's perception of her creative process results in a fresh, winning take on an artist who has rarely been understood. The author uses strong verbs to give Kahlo voice: "I see (Veo)"; "Se (I know)." Kahlo is depicted as a self-possessed woman with a drive to create. Her artistic process has room for others to participate, though-love, imagination, and dreams are closely entangled in her art. In the illustrations, Diego Rivera is shown creating alongside his wife. While the artistic process seems magical to readers, Kahlo knows what she is searching for. Each spread has just one or two words on it, both in English and Spanish. The text floats on the page, with the Spanish in a lighter color, adding to the ethereal, dreamlike feel of the book. Morales's art and O'Meara's photographs take this book to another level. Created with stop-motion puppets, paintings, and digital elements, these are amazing works of art themselves. The puppets are lifelike, resembling Kahlo (with her unibrow) and Rivera accurately. They are surrounded by the animals Kahlo loved, including vibrant feathered parrots, a monkey, and dog. Throughout the book, Kahlo goes searching for inspiration and finds it all around her. Morales incorporates many of the hallmarks of Kahlo's art into her own. The artist wears silver, open-hand earrings and multicolored dresses. She plays with a skeleton puppet on these pages and imagines herself soaring, freed from her fragile body. Morales's note in both English and Spanish describes her connection with Kahlo. A resonant title that can be used anywhere Kahlo's art is studied. It will also be admired in bilingual collections.-Susan E. Murray, formerly at Glendale Public Library, AZ

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
Grades 3-6 Morales artistically distills the essence of the remarkable Frida Kahlo in this esoteric, multigenre picture book. Morales layers English and Spanish wordsnever more than four to a pageto depict a Frida who is curious, playful, wise, and inspired. Rather than tell a story, the text captures fragments of Frida's life, like snapshots with bilingual captions. Readers who know about this artist will appreciate that she is so much more than the product of the bus accident that robbed her of her health, and readers who do not know about her will be intrigued to learn more. The heartfelt yet succinct biography at the end provides that information in both languages. The three-dimensional quality of the illustrations lends realism, even though they are quite surreal, and the photography always captures the sparkle in Frida's eyes and the lights at any fiesta. While the picture-book format and bright photographed tableaux will appeal to a younger audience, it's slightly older readers who will be best suited to appreciate the deceptively simple text and references to Kahlo's art.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 1, 2014
There have been several books for young readers about Frida Kahlo, but none has come close to the emotional aesthetic Morales brings to her subject, as a Mexican artist herself who understands the particular landscape of Kahlo's imagination. By selecting several of Kahlo's recurring symbols--monkey, dog, parrot, deer, hummingbird--she achieves artistic depth and lends child appeal to a very spare, ethereal text. Morales also incorporates Senor Calavera (a figure who recurs throughout Morales's own work), representing the dance with death Kahlo engaged in all her life. Morales initially shows Kahlo as a puppet: made from steel, polymer clay, and wool, the three-dimensional figures (photographed and digitally manipulated inside double-page-spread collages) are works of art in themselves. The illustrations are accompanied by just a few words of text in both Spanish and English ("busco / I search // Veo/ I see... // Juego / I play") that leave readers with a dreamlike impression. As we enter Kahlo's mind, the medium and style change, and the pages are illustrated with lush acrylics, showing her winged feet carrying her across the spreads, arrows whizzing past; one eventually hits her pet deer in the foreleg. This allusion to Kahlo's famous painting The Little Deer may be lost on most young readers, but the accompanying text ("siento / I feel") will get the basic meaning across. Morales (Nio Wrestles the World, rev. 7/13) once again impresses us with her artistry in an ingenious tour de force. kathleen t. horning

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2015
Morales initially shows Kahlo as a puppet: made from steel, polymer clay, and wool, three-dimensional figures are photographed and digitally manipulated inside double-page-spread collages. As we enter Kahlo's mind, the medium changes to lush acrylics. The illustrations are accompanied by just a few words of text in both Spanish and English that leave readers with a dreamlike impression. An ingenious tour de force.

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)