Review by Booklist Review
Golio has a gift for penning picture books about subjects that, at first glance, may not seem all that attractive to young readers: Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, and, now, the Little Tramp. Nevertheless, Golio and Young's final product is one with undeniable appeal. Charlie Chaplin had a difficult childhood in Victorian and Edwardian England, yet even when it was off to the poorhouse, he developed his talent for singing, dancing, and making people laugh: Charlie was funny, a natural . . . With his deep-blue eyes, he'd hypnotize. / With his body, he'd tell stories. The biography's verse, open and light, still packs in pathos and pleasure as Charlie began to understand / How Funny and Sad went hand in hand. His growing success as a performer brought him to America, where he solidified his fame in films. Young's collage-and-ink art, with its signature abstractness, is made especially accessible: its shadows, shapes, and outlines suggest and show the subject's evolution up until the last page turn, when an instantly recognizable photograph of Chaplin's iconic character cinematically snaps it all into place. An afterword provides further showbiz context and facts, resources, citations, and relevance (he showed us how someone small could be clever and strong ); a bottom-corner page flip animates the Tramp's signature walk; and the entire package will indeed bring a smile.--Andrew Medlar Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Golio and Young create a lively and poetic homage to Charlie Chaplin. Despite living in poverty, Chaplin's household fostered his love of acting, clowning, and musical theater. Golio's rhythmic prose conjures the spirit of tragicomedy behind Chaplin's performances: "Charlie began to understand/ How Funny and Sad went hand in hand." Young's ink and torn paper collage-work includes newsprint, colored paper, fabrics, and shadowy silhouettes; the sophisticated, abstract images communicate the exaggerated theatricality of silent film, as well as Chaplin's iconic style and underlying complexity. Ages 8-12. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-The duo that illuminated musicians Bird and Diz present the backstory of an internationally acclaimed silent film star, director, and composer. Golio has wisely selected moments from Chaplin's 19th-century London childhood that are laden with sensory components or emotional connections: "Laughing children with colored balloons / A flower seller with his jingly cart and horse.." Scaffolding the heights and depths of life with an absent actor father and a musical mother whose illness led to the poorhouse, the author traces experiences Charlie and his brother absorbed before becoming vaudevillians themselves (the book concludes before adult complexities arise). Throughout pratfalls with troupes in England and America, the siblings and their audiences discerned that "Laughter and Tears were brothers, too." Young's inventive, mixed-media collages play with this duality by balancing subdued scenes with bursts of joyous color. The penultimate spread depicts the tramp costume, freshly fashioned for cinema, stretching diagonally across the gutter-a brown shadow emerging from a patchwork canopy snipped from previous scenes. It echoes the burlap crowd from Chaplin's earliest street dances and prepares readers for the final iconic photograph. Thoughtful design presents the blank verse rendered in white on black-or the reverse-paying homage to the subject's filmmaking, as does the tramp silhouette on the base of each recto that animates when flipped. -VERDICT Adults will appreciate the informative and creative approach, as well as the afterword, bibliography, and textual nod to the titular lyrics. Children will cheer for the class clown's success.-Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
While based on cited research, this biography doesn't quite bring to life Chaplin's groundbreaking artistry. The free-verse text, rhyming occasionally and erratically, unpredictably switches from silent film cards to text blocks within illustrations.Young's collage and ink art, which is full of texture, color, and pattern, doesn't capture facial and body expression--a strange choice for a book about a celebrated visual communicator. Reading list. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Children meet Chaplin in this intimate biography of the iconic silent-film comedian, whose movies, humor, and story grow ever more distant to each generation of readers.Children unaware of Chaplin will immediately feel moved by young Charlie's bleak origins: an empty stomach, dancing for pennies, an absent father and sick mother, and frequent moves in and out of the poorhouse. They will pull for him hamming it up in a children's theater troupe and stand beside him watching "old Rummy Binks," a local eccentric, outside a pub holding horses for pennies. Charlie would later appropriate Binks' baggy clothes, bowler hat, crooked cane, and funny penguin walk to become his own Little Tramp, making the close association between laughter and tears. Young's collages harness muddy and murky colors, silhouettes, torn papers, threadbare burlap and floral fabrics, jaundiced newspapers, and ink linework to evoke both Victorian times and the silent-film era. A succinct afterword, facts, and resources section offers kid-friendly biographical highlights, films, and books to encourage further exploration of this extraordinary comedian, filmmaker, and composer. Observant readers might notice the black silhouette of a little tramp in the bottom-right corner of each spread. Those intuitive enough to flip the pages will delight in a primitive but undeniably magical experience.Readers who watch him waddle their way and extend a wave are certain to return his timeless greeting. (Picture book/biography. 6-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
