Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara

In this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillion-copy best-selling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the life of RuPaul, the shape-shifter, performer, supermodel, and host of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Even before little Ru was born, a fortune teller told his mum that he would one day be famous... It was only a matter of time before he figured out how. Playing dress-up was his favourite game, and that’s where he felt most comfortable. Ru went on to study performing arts and then moved to New York to mix things up in a punk band.

Later, drag was a way to express himself as an artist. He found success for himself, then wanted to help others find theirs. He inspires us to do what feels right and love ourselves.

This witty and wise book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the inspiring performer’s life. Cloth quarter binding makes this book a stylish and attractive gift for all children who love to dream.

Little People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling biography series for kids that explores the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream.

This empowering series of books offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardcover and paperback versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. With rewritten text for older children, the treasuries each bring together a multitude of dreamers in a single volume. You can also collect a selection of the books by theme in boxed gift sets. Activity books and a journal provide even more ways to make the lives of these role models accessible to children.

Inspire the next generation of outstanding people who will change the world with Little People, BIG DREAMS!

-Amazon description… (more)

Born in northeast India, Mary's athletic abilities were largely ignored until she decided to train for boxing to enter the Asian Games and even the Olympics. She personifies the adage that believing in yourself and having "courage can turn big dreams into victories."
The illustrations by Jen Khatun are simple, colorful, and expressive.
Well suited for reading WITH someone of any age including ESL, and great for gifting to anyone, but especially to a school or your local public library!
I requested and received a temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Quarto Publishing Group/Frances Lincoln Children's Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
@QuartoKids @CBCBook @Frances_Lincoln #LittlePeopleBIG DREAMS @sanchezvegara #Boxing @TheQuartoGroup #OlympicMedalist @MangteC #illustratorJenKhatun #MaryKom #NetGalley… (more)

Simple yet vividly illustrated, capturing the artist’s eccentric life and groundbreaking work.

SALVADOR DALÍ (Little People, BIG DREAMS) is a new children’s picture book by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and illustrated by Mariona Tolosa Sisteré that portrays the life and work of famed Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. While aimed at children, older readers curious about the man who created the iconic “melting clocks painting,” The Persistence of Memory, would get a clear and basic introduction and perhaps be tempted to delve further; it’s that enticing!

Vegara tells about the man’s indulgent upbringing and his fascination with the Surrealist movement during the 1930s in Paris and concisely conveys the concept behind his art: consciousness vs. unconscious. Thoroughly enjoyable!

I recommend SALVADOR DALÍ (Little People, BIG DREAMS) to elementary-aged readers (and curious elders) with an interest in art, artists, or just that fascinating clock painting.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy via Netgalley.… (more)

I’ve read a number of the books in the LITTLE PEOPLE BIG DREAMS biography collection for children. The series consists of very short, accessible works which highlight the lives of people who have made important contributions to the world and have accomplished great things in spite of significant obstacles.

It’s entirely understandable why Wilma Rudolph’s story is part of this series. Born prematurely in Tennessee, she was a tiny baby who caught almost every infectious disease going. At age four, she contracted polio, which caused her left leg to become twisted and turned in. Doctors pronounced that she’d never walk again. Mrs. Rudolph said that her daughter would walk. Wilma believed her and was as determined as her parent to make this happen.The two regularly made a 100-mile round trip by bus to Nashville for Wilma to receive medical treatment. The biography informs young readers about the racial segregation on public buses. As African Americans, Wilma and her mother had to sit at the back of the bus. What is not mentioned (but should be) is that Nashville was the location of the nearest Black hospital that would actually care for Wilma. However, The book also fails to note that Wilma was excluded from attending school for a few years because of her disability and frequent illnesses.

At the Nashville hospital, Wilma received physiotherapy for her leg. At home, her 19 siblings would, over the next five years, help out with treatments, massaging her leg four times a day. At some point Wilma was fitted with a heavy steel brace, which she was able to discard by age nine.

Once free of her brace, Wilma began to play basketball, which she’d always loved. She excelled at the game and was spotted by a coach who invited her to participate in a college program for athletes. (The book does not report just how important track-and-field-coach Ed Temple of Tennessee State University was in Wilma’s life. It was with his support that she gained a college scholarship and had access to the training that allowed her to fulfill her extraordinary potential.)

True to the mandate of the series, this work highlights Wilma’s accomplishments at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics (a bronze in the 400 meter relay) and at the 1960 Rome Olympics (gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter dashes and the 400 meter relay). It rightly points out that the young woman showed that sprinting wasn’t something just for boys, and it appropriately observes that she had “fought against all odds to become the fastest woman in the world.”

In the final pages, there’s a small timeline of Wilma’s life and three suggestions for further reading—including Kathleen Krull’s superb picture book Wilma Unlimited, a book that is in an entirely different league from this one.

While I acknowledge the value of a series that gives brief, easy-to-read summaries of important lives, I have always found the writing in these books unremarkable and less than inspiring. Here and elsewhere, the illustrations are purely perfunctory. Wilma doesn’t even look like Wilma, and the scenes we see her in look modern and sanitized. Forget artistic merit; there isn’t even an attempt to be historically accurate or realistic in the pictures that accompany the text.

Having said all of this, series books help kids to gain confidence as readers. The brevity and familiar formula employed in LITTLE PEOPLE BIG DREAMS can be relied on to encourage further reading of the other short biographies offered by Vegara, the author and creator of this now sizeable collection of books.… (more)