Frida Kahlo’s Flower Crown: A Picture Book

Gr 1-3–In illustrations that positively blaze with saturated colors, Lora fills scenes from Frida Kahlo’s life with native and cultivated trees, bushes, vines, flowers, and fruits—all stylized but recognizable (or identified on the endpapers), and reflected in the bright hues and patterns of the exuberantly posed, emphatically eyebrowed artist’s dresses and gowns. The brief but luxuriant narrative adopts an appropriately botanical theme: Kahlo “sprouted/ and burst through the earth,” “bloomed/ season after season,/ reaching for the sky,” and notwithstanding a streetcar accident in which “her body broke like a stem,” “bloomed” as an artist beneath elaborate flower crowns “rooted in love.” Along with instructions to readers for constructing their own crowns, the book closes with an empowering challenge: “What if I were a little bold and a little brave every day, just like Frida? Imagine all that I could be.” Though thin on specific biographical details, by calling attention to the bright, tropical hues of Kahlo and her work, this dazzling whirl of color can’t help but kindle an urge to find out more.