Category: Biography

Out of the Shadows

How Lotte Reiniger Made the First Animated Fairytale Movie

by Fiona Robinson

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2022. 44 pages.
Review written May 4, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This exquisitely illustrated book tells a story I’d known nothing about and fascinated me all along the way. It’s a picture book biography of the young woman who pioneered techniques in animation and made the first full length animated movie.

The book starts with Lotte’s love for fairy tales and her discovery of Chinese puppets, jointed puppets controlled with sticks. Next, Lotte learned at school the traditional craft of Scherenschnitte, cutting paper to make intricate character outlines. Then she combined the two techniques, making characters from paper and turning them into jointed puppets. All while she was still a child.

As an older teen, Lotte got to go to acting school where she met a German moviemaker. Movies were still silent in those days, with intertitles between scenes to give dialog and live orchestras playing while the movies played.

I love the spread that describes why she got a chance to try her puppet techniques in animating movies. It was for a movie about the Pied Piper of Hamelin. They brought rats to the street where they were filming and set them loose.

The rats didn’t magically follow Wegener. They disappeared into the town, plaguing the townsfolk.

Next, the crew tried guinea pigs, painted gray with tails attached. A gunshot was fired into the air. The camera whirred. The guinea pigs were released. Wegener turned to see the little creatures in the middle of the street, chewing their fake tales off.

So Lotte got the chance to create her first animation. She used stop motion animation, giving the crew big baskets of wooden rats. They moved them little by little and photographed each step. It took all day, but when they combined the pictures of the rats with the pied piper, it worked perfectly. The movie was a hit!

The book talks more about how Lotte did her work, using a special table to film animations done with cut paper, and then the new improved table she invented herself to give more depth to the animation. It all builds up to a full-length movie they weren’t sure people would be able to sit through — and then had to have police manage the crowds. I like the story included that Lotte noticed smoke that the audience thought was a special effect and successfully stopped a fire by discovering the source.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed took its place in film history as the first full-length fairytale movie. It is also considered the oldest surviving full-length animation. For a young woman in 1926, this is a remarkable, almost unbelievable achievement. But all of this is true, and absolutely not a fairy story!

And if Lotte’s story weren’t fascinating enough, the wonderful illustrations accompany the text in perfect harmony. There’s generous use of silhouettes, mimicking the cut-paper characters from her work, but there’s plenty of variety. Sometimes words show as if on a reel of film and titles between sections look like the intertitles from silent movies. The back matter tells the reader more about Lotte’s amazing life.

This is a truly stellar picture book biography that I didn’t even know I needed.

abramsbooks.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

One Step Further

My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Lifelong Mission

by Katherine Johnson
with her daughters Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore
illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow

National Geographic Kids, 2021. 48 pages.
Review written January 5, 2022, from my own copy
Starred Review

Here’s a wonderful picture book biography that tells about the groundbreaking life of Katherine Johnson and weaves in the experiences of her three daughters growing up with her example.

The book uses photographs and artifacts from Katherine’s life to give wonderful visuals, giving a taste of the times. The daughters are pictured with speech bubbles giving commentary on the artifacts and the main text, effectively pulling the reader into the story with child guides.

Segregation affected Katherine’s life, and it also affected her daughters’ lives. When she moved in order to find a job that used her talents, her children experienced segregation. But I also like that when she became a human computer for NACA, there were many other college-educated African-American women working there (segregated from the white computers). The kids are pictured saying about that:

Our neighborhood was full of smart and stylish Black women mathematicians. At church, at school pickups, at summer cookouts, in our kitchen.

They took such pride in their jobs and looked so perfect every day. We didn’t know quite what they did, but we wanted to be like them.

The theme of “one step further” is carried through the book, as Katherine continued to push to go one step further. Her daughter Kathy also went one step further by participating in sit-ins to protest racial segregation.

The book progresses through to Katherine’s important work on the moon launch and how John Glenn asked Katherine to check the math of the mechanical computer before he was willing to take off.

I like the page at the back that tells how NASA named a building and then an entire facility after Katherine. It also tells how her daughters followed in her footsteps, with one working for NASA and the other two working as teachers.

There are ten pages of detailed historical notes after the main story, so older kids intrigued by this can learn how they can find out more. This biography is put together in a wonderfully inviting package.

natgeo.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Thanks to Frances Perkins

Fighter for Workers’ Rights

by Deborah Hopkinson
illustrated by Kristy Caldwell

Peachtree, 2020. 40 pages.
Review written September 17, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

I love the way this book starts, making the book personal and rousing curiosity:

Let’s start with two math questions, especially for you younger readers.
1. How many years will it be until you turn sixty-two?
2. What year will that be?
Now, hold onto your answers until the end, when you’ll find out why this is important.
And why (when you get there) you’ll want to thank Frances Perkins.

The book goes on as a vivid picture book biography showing key events in Frances Perkins’ life. It shows Frances helping with her mother in a soup kitchen and tells about conditions for workers at that time. Frances herself witnessed the Triangle Waist Company fire on March 25, 1911, when she’d been having tea with a friend nearby. After that, she went to a memorial gathering and was inspired to fight for justice.

The book shows the good work she did and the various ways she helped workers, first in New York State, and then as the Secretary of Labor, the first female cabinet member, under Franklin Roosevelt.

Frances Perkins contributed many ideas to FDR’s New Deal, and this book mentions them and focuses in on Social Security. I love this description of Social Security:

Today, Social Security provides help for survivors: the children or spouse of a worker who has passed away. It supports children and adults with disabilities. The program also benefits older people who’ve paid Social Security taxes during their working lives.

Through Social Security, we’ve built a society where we help one another. An idea that began as a slip of paper in Frances Perkins’s desk has become a vital part of our democracy.

Now back to those math questions. Although it might well change in the future, right now most people can begin receiving Social Security benefits as early as – you guessed it – age sixty-two.

So whether you benefit from Social Security now or on some far-off day, think of this dedicated public servant and remember to say, “Thanks, Frances!”

The book also shows how hard she worked and the obstacles she faced to bring this to fruition. It’s lovely to realize how much the vision and dedication of one woman contributes to our well-being today.

deborahhopkinson.com
kristycaldwell.com
peachtree-online.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Monument Maker

Daniel Chester French and the Lincoln Memorial

written by Linda Booth Sweeney
illustrated by Shawn Fields

Tilbury House Publishers in association with the Concord Museum, 2019. 64 pages.
Starred Review
Review written January 14, 2020, from a library book

You can tell this is a monumental book when you pick it up and browse through it. It’s thicker than most picture books, printed on heavy paper. The pages are large, done with exquisitely detailed artwork, and pictures of two of Daniel Chester French’s statues done extra big by turning the book sideways. Almost all the pictures are in shades of gray, except the frame of the story with modern kids examining his work and shown in color.

The book tells about the whole life of Dan Chester French, the sculptor of the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial and of the Minuteman statue in Concord and of many more American statues.

He didn’t expect to become a sculptor when he grew up, but he witnessed great events – like the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln. And it turned out that he liked making art.

The book tells about the influence of moving to the town of Concord, Massachusetts and the great thinkers who lived there. I liked the detail that he took lessons in art from Louisa May Alcott’s sister (the model for Amy in Little Women).

I never realized that Daniel Chester French, the sculptor, made smaller models of the statue of Abraham Lincoln and other people, stonecutters, were responsible for the final statue made of stone.

I like it when biographies of artists give you the feel for how the artist was inspired as well as what his art is like. This book does those things very well.

Twelve pages of back matter give more information. This is an engaging, informative, and inspiring book. It makes me want to go see more Daniel Chester French sculptures.

lindaboothsweeney.com
shawnfields.com
tilburyhouse.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.