{"id":5436,"date":"2021-10-10T00:20:13","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T06:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5436"},"modified":"2021-10-10T08:33:42","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T14:33:42","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-764-featuring-yuyi-morales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5436","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #764: Featuring Yuyi Morales"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Child, you are awake!
Breathe in, then breathe out, hermosa creatura.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nBright Star<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Neal Porter Books, September 2021), written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales<\/a><\/strong>, nearly thrums with tenderness. In this story, a fawn is born in the desert (pictured above). “You are ALIVE! You are a bright star inside our hearts,” we read on the spread that follows; it is the fawn’s mother who seems to be narrating. <\/p>\n

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In pages rife with symbolism (which observant readers can pick up on and which is also explained in the book’s closing author’s note), we watch as the fawn explores. But soon danger arrives: The palette darkens; smoke fills the sky; and search lights shine. The fawn and other animals, as they try to escape the danger, run into a huge concrete wall. Barbed wire hangs atop it, and destroyed cacti litter the ground. “NO!”<\/p>\n

The narrator acknowledges the fawn’s fears but lovingly guides the creature to “imagine a new story. You imagine … the most beautiful world.” This spread, pictured below, reveals a brown-skinned child, who turns and looks direclty at readers. The final spread depicts more humans: “You are a bright star inside our hearts.”<\/p>\n

In remarkably textured illustrations \u2014 made with acrylics, digital paintings, photography (for particualar textures in the artwork), and embroidery \u2014 Morales spins this evocative story of hope. There is a lot take in; re-reads bring even more visual rewards. The book is a love song to children \u2014 “I made this book,” Morales writes in a closing note, “because I want you to know that no matter where you are, where you’ve come from, or where you are going, you should always be honored, respected, cared for, and loved” \u2014 but it is an especially poignant acknowledgement of (as she also writes in that same note) “migrant children at the borderlands [who] have experienced things that they should never have to endure.” Morales also explains in the book’s backmatter that she began writing the story in the spring of 2019 when she saw caravans of people reach the border between Mexico and the U.S., only to be detained, separated from their families, or sent back to their home countries without their children. <\/p>\n

I encourage you to find a physical copy of this one. The elements of design throughout are striking. Be sure, for instance, to remove the dustjacket. A Spanish edition releases simultaneously. <\/p>\n

The Shelf Awareness<\/em> review describes this one as “both a lullaby and a cry for survival.” Yes, that. Both. <\/p>\n

Here are some spreads. ….
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“… let it out. Shout it loud!
Let the world know what you feel!”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“And you imagine a new story.
You imagine …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“… the most beautiful world.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nBRIGHT STAR. Text and illustrations copyright \u00a9 2021 by Yuyi Morales. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Neal Porter Books, Holiday House, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * Jules’s Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> A bike ride through beautiful Shelby Bottoms Park in Nashville. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> A long hike in sprinkly rain. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Vegan tacos at Nashville’s Farmer’s Market. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Listening to Dustin O’Halloran as I type this post:
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