Using the rhythm and pacing of blues lyrics, Jonah Winter (Diego) unspools the biography of dancer, singer, performer and activist Josephine Baker. Marjorie Priceman's (One of Each) loose line and expressive illustrations evoke the sensuality of the dances that rocketed Baker to the top.
Together they tackle some difficult moments in Baker's life in a way that picture book audiences can handle. They counter a sobering image of Josephine as a girl, huddled on the floor to sleep ("newspapers for a sheet--/ rats crawlin' all around,/ a nibblin' at her feet") with a picture of her Granny on the opposite page holding her and saying, "Someday you're gonna be a princess--/ you know what Granny says is true," as a fantasy tiara appears upon Josephine's head. Winter and Priceman portray her early dances and her inborn sense of showmanship. A tragic event interrupts Josephine's impromptu performing on the night when "there were white folks chasin' black folks--/ on the black folks' side of town." Winter marks this as the pivotal moment when Baker leaves St. Louis, and Priceman's stop-action sequence of her escape portrays a confidence that she'll find what she's searching for--and she does in Paris.
This portrayal of Baker as someone who adheres to her beliefs from childhood plants the seeds for her later work in the French Resistance and the U.S. civil rights movement. In the finale, "dressed to the hilt," Josephine wears a tiara. You know what Granny says is true. Brava! --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness