{"id":46095,"date":"2026-01-12T22:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46095"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:34:21","slug":"review-of-andre-written-by-carole-boston-weatherford-and-rob-sanders-illustrated-by-lamont-oneal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46095","title":{"rendered":"Review of Andr\u00e9, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illustrated by Lamont O’Neal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Andr\u00e9<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley – A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale<\/em><\/p>\n

written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders
\nillustrated by Lamont O’Neal<\/p>\n

Henry Holt and Company, 2025. 52 pages.
\nReview written January 7, 2026, from a library book.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

I’m not even a little bit interested in high fashion, but this picture book biography got me very interested in a Black boy who was, and who grew up to be editor of Vogue<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley grew up in the Jim Crow south, finding escape from bullying by reading Vogue<\/em> magazine. His growing up years weren’t easy:<\/p>\n

At Hillside High School, where French was his favorite subject, six-foot-six Andr\u00e9 stood out. His voice, his mannerisms, and his smarts rubbed some bullies the wrong way. They beat him up because of how he looked and who he was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But a little before the halfway point, we get a spread of Andr\u00e9’s plane landing in Paris, and the rest of the book is about his progressive success as a fashion journalist in Paris, beginning as an assistant to Diana Vreeland, former editor of Vogue<\/em>, and progressing to where he was the editor of Vogue<\/em> himself and giving fashion advice to Michelle and Barack Obama in the White House.<\/p>\n

The joyful pictures make this book special. In every spread, Andr\u00e9 stands tall above others, and we see his sense of style progress – from a teen dressed more meticulously than his peers to the flowing caftan style he proudly wore as an adult after a visit to Morocco.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t too happy with the back matter – I would have liked a timeline to at least know when he was born and died, so I turned to Wikipedia. (1948 to 2022. I also found out his years as editor of Vogue<\/em> were 1998 to 2013.) But I suppose it’s not a bad thing that this picture book biography made me want to find out more.<\/p>\n

And this is another one I encourage you to check out for yourself. Andr\u00e9 described his own life as a fairy tale, and his joy in that journey shines through these pages.<\/p>\n

cbweatherford.com<\/a>
\nrobsanderswrites.com<\/a>
\nlamontoneal.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/andre.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andr\u00e9 Andr\u00e9 Leon Talley – A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders illustrated by Lamont O’Neal Henry Holt and Company, 2025. 52 pages. Review written January 7, 2026, from a library book. Starred Review I’m not even a little bit interested in high fashion, but this picture book biography […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,11,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46114,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46095\/revisions\/46114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}