This stunning picture book biography of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo blends lush, highly-charged art evocative of Kahlo's own work with a spare, understated narrative. Despite its restraint, the text delivers a bounty of information about Kahlo in short, beautifully weighted sentences that convey more than mere fact: “For little Frida, the world is Mexico.”

Kahlo was plagued by illness as a child. As a young adult, she was terribly injured in a bus accident. Art began as her diversion from loneliness and pain. It grew into a spiritual, soul-deep need that illustrator Ana Juan has captured in her fanciful, haunted paintings for this striking book. Both playful and frightening, they convey Kahlo's escape from physical trauma through her incredibly rich life of the mind, which in turn inspired the artwork she created.

Older children and teens will be fascinated by Kahlo's story and its visual interpretation here. A brief author's note provides additional information on Kahlo's life, such as her marriage to Diego Rivera, to supplement a narrative that focuses on the relationship of this singular artist to her art.

Megan Schliesman
April 2002