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Children's Fiction Girls & Women

Bloom

A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli

by (author) Kyo Maclear

illustrated by Julie Morstad

Publisher
Tundra
Initial publish date
Feb 2018
Category
Girls & Women, General, Clothing & Dress
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781101918562
    Publish Date
    Feb 2018
    List Price
    $21.00

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Where to buy it

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 5 to 9
  • Grade: k to 4

Description

A dazzling first-person picture book biography of the life of iconic fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli by the award-winning team who created Julia, Child.

Here is the life of iconic fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who as a little girl in Rome, was told by her own mamma that she was brutta. Ugly. So she decided to seek out beauty around her, and found it everywhere. What is beauty? Elsa wondered. She looked everywhere for beauty until something inside of Elsa blossomed, and she became an artist with an incredible imagination. Defining beauty on her own creative terms, Schiaparelli worked hard to develop her designs, and eventually bloomed into an extraordinary talent who dreamed up the most wonderful dresses, hats, shoes and jewelry. Why not a shoe for a hat? Why not a dress with drawers? And she invented a color: shocking pink! Her adventurous mind was the key to her happiness and success--and is still seen today in her legacy of wild imagination. Daring and different, Elsa Schiaparelli used art to make fashion, and it was quite marvelous.

Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad, the dynamic duo who created the critically acclaimed Julia, Child, team up again to bring to life the childhood memories and the inspiring milestones of the legendary Elsa Schiaparelli. With its warm, lyrical text and enchanting illustrations, Bloom shows readers how ingenuity, vision and self doubt all made Schiaparelli truly beautiful. A gift for her older fans and younger audiences who have yet to discover her genius, Bloom is sure to be an enthralling classic.

About the authors

KYO MACLEAR was born in London and grew up in Toronto as the only child of a foreign correspondent. Her father reported on some significant world events, including recording the first interviews with American POWs in North Vietnam. While Stray Love is entirely a work of fiction, it is informed by her experiences living with her father. Her first novel, The Letter Opener (2007), was awarded the K.M. Hunter Artists Award and shortlisted for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Maclear is also an award-winning visual arts writer and the author of two children’s books: Spork (2010) and Virginia Wolf (2012). Visit her online at www.kyomaclear.ca.

Kyo Maclear's profile page

 span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Julie Morstadspan lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> is an author, illustrator and artist living in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Her most recent book for children, How To, marks her authorial debut, and has received starred reviews in Kirkus, School Library Journal and Quill & Quire, as well as a Governor General's award nomination. Books she has illustrated for children include When You Were Small, recipient of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award; When I Was Small, winner of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize; and Singing Away the Dark, which was shortlisted for a number of children's literature prizes.

 

Julie Morstad's profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, Red Cedar Book Award
  • Short-listed, Information Book Award
  • Nominated, Silver Birch Prize
  • Short-listed, Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award

Editorial Reviews

One of Children’s Book Review’s Best Non-Fiction Picture Books of 2018
One of Winnipeg Free Press' Top 50 Books of 2018, Children’s List
One of CBC Books’ Best Canadian Children's & YA Books of 2018
One of Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Book Covers of 2018
One of Globe and Mail's 100 Most Notable Books of 2018
One of the Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books 2018 and Best Informational Books for Young Readers 2018
One of Quill & Quire's Books of the Year 2018
PRAISE FOR Bloom:

"Julie Morstad's delicate art brings the vibrancy of flowers and 1920s and 1930s frock fashions alive. . . . Bloom takes a contemplative step back from the purely biographical and becomes a gentle ode to self-expression." --Starred Review, Quill & Quire

"With beautiful, richly colorful, and playful artwork nicely evoking the character of its subject, this lyrical biography of Elsa Schiaparelli offers picture-book readers an enlightening introduction to the wildly inventive and influential fashion designer… Little ones who ‘dare to be different’ will be inspired." --Booklist
"This is a satisfying set-up for readers not quite ready for Rubin's Hot Pink: The Life and Fashions of Elsa Schiaparelli." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"[An] enchanting story for young readers of how a young girl used her imagination and emerged from plain to extraordinary.” --Children’s Book Review
"Bloom will augment a school or public library collection and will be a good gift for young girls especially. . . . It may inspire young artists, young designers and young innovators to follow their dreams, too." --CM Magazine

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