In 1930, Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, left Mexico for San Francisco. Novesky describes Frida's loneliness and restlessness; not yet an established artist, she created a painting of herself small alongside Diego Rivera, large and important looking. Diaz's textured and color-saturated acrylic, charcoal, and varnish paintings pay atmospheric homage to the artists. An author's note is appended.

A lushly painted picture book about the artist Frida Kahlo during her time in San Francisco with her husband, Diego Rivera. Figuring a pink bird on most pages as muse and symbol of the quiet, newly married Frida, Diaz's brilliant charcoal-and-acrylic paintings trace young Frida's feelings about the move, her first away from Mexico. The brilliant spreads chronicle the dramatic sunrises of the city, crisp blue days in the redwoods and the welcome reds of Chinatown. Frida's depicted as balancing a cane to indicate her lifelong infirmities, her long skirts and decorated hair remind the reader of her Mexican roots and the relative size of Rivera and Kahlo changes to show how Kahlo was feeling about herself. This story, though, one of an artistic Cinderella, begs for more information. Alas, the wan author's note and the lack of a timeline or bibliography leave young readers with little more than a snapshot of this artist. Though Kahlo's full, complicated, enigmatic life asks for a more mature audience (see Carmen T. Bernier-Grand'sexcellent Frida: Viva la Vida, 2007), this serves as a passable introduction. (Picture book/biography. 6-10)

Beautifully illustrated, Me, Frida is a wonderful introduction to the life of Frida Khalo. Always fading into the background beside her husband Diego Rivera's fame, Frida longed to be seen. She, too, was an artist and wanted the world to see her artwork. Novesky focuses on their move to San Francisco and describes Frida's feelings of loneliness, being away from her home in Mexico, and how she used those feelings as a springboard for her artwork. Reminiscent of the landscape and culture of Mexico, David Diaz uses rich, bold watercolors to depict Frida exploring markets and streets in San Francisco adorned in silk skirts, scarves, and ornate jewelry. This is an inspiring story that could easily be used with students to introduce them to this famous female artist and to reinforce the idea of believing in yourself and using what you have to make your dreams come true. Recommended. Suzanne Snead, Library Media Specialist, Nancy Strickland Intermediate, Farmers Branch, Texas

Novesky's (Elephant Prince) portrait of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo depicts the artist as a reticent newcomer in a foreign country, who gradually gains self-confidence from her surroundings. Overflowing with compelling imagery ("Frida especially loved Chinatown. It smelled of incense, fish, and fog"), the story also incorporates the motif of Kahlo as a tiny bird. Married to muralist Diego Rivera, Kahlo is overshadowed by her adoring husband's size and reputation: "Diego, big as an elephant; Frida, a lovely little bird on his arm." When she and Rivera fly to San Francisco in 1930, they are shown holding hands and soaring-sans airplane-up the coastline. Readers will notice a small, pink bird in nearly every scene, the same one that appears in the painting that helped launch Kahlo's career. Vibrant spreads feature backdrops of warm colors dripping into cooler ones (and vice versa), just as the brightly dressed, bejeweled Kahlo melded with the damp, gray city. Diaz's (Ocean's Child) overlapping complementary colors add a gorgeous yet slightly unsettling visual element, his intense hues and folk/naive style recalling Kahlo's work. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Gr 3-6-This picture book focuses on the year that Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, spent in San Francisco while he worked on murals for the Pacific Stock Exchange. It was 1930 and Frida was young, newly married, and just beginning her own career as a painter. She had never been out of Mexico and everything about this trip was new and overwhelming. Novesky adeptly tells how Kahlo began to gain her confidence and find her place in the world, using the city and its surroundings as inspiration for her own work. The writing is succinct and careful, and a portrait of Frida as a strong, feisty woman comes through clearly. Diaz's acrylic and charcoal paintings echo Kahlo's own folkloric style, brimming with color and detail, but are unique as well, providing a rich complement to the text. This is a solid choice as a supplement for a biography collection, but libraries looking for a way to introduce the artist should turn to Jonah Winter's Frida (Scholastic, 2002) or Margaret Frith's Frida Kahlo: The Artist Who Painted Herself (Grosset & Dunlap, 2003) instead.-Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.