Jonah Winter

The first lines were straight blues; even I was able to read them well. But when it got jazzy or whatever, I lost track of the rhythm or cadence. *But* that's on me. I am confident that this would be wonderful with the right narrator-reader.

But I'm reading a string of picture-book biographies and they seem to getting aimed younger and younger. I find it so dissatisfying to learn so little... even the author's notes and back matter aren't as helpful as I'd like. Baker sounds like an amazing woman and I'd like to have read more about her.
---
Reread. I discovered that it's true... when one reads too much at once, one doesn't appreciate as much. There's actually a fair bit of what's most relevant in here, just told so concisely that it's missable. But still I do want even more.

Meanwhile, this is indeed a story well worth recommending.… (more)

Lovely. Too rarely, all the very hard work that many successful people do, and that their parents have done, is glossed over, or made to read as if it's an adventure. I ached for Sonia's mother.

Especially because it's horrid to learn that the public schools are (were, I hope?) so bad in the Bronx that Sonia's mother sent both her children to private schools, even after their father died.

My inner child and I are curious why the father died and what happened to the brother. But that's not likely relevant, esp. in a bio for early primary readers.… (more)