Lucy!

Starred review from January 15, 2024
A tribute to a groundbreaking comic actor with a lifelong gift for provoking laughter. "I just have an obsession to make people laugh," Lucille Ball is quoted as saying, and the authors focus on her talent for comedy. They trace the extroverted actor's career, from early childhood to I Love Lucy--which debuted on TV in 1951 and is still bringing on the chortles in reruns all these years later. They pass up analyzing her comic style but do cover early trials, training, and breaks to demonstrate her determination to succeed. They also point in the main section to her breakthrough achievement as the first woman to produce a TV series; in the afterword, they discuss how her show was the first to feature both a pregnant star and, in fictional and real-life husband Desi Arnaz, a Latine one. She also went on in later years to run Desilu Productions, the studio that made Star Trek and other famous series. Barrager's neutral-toned, 1950s-style illustrations culminate in montages of riotous highlights from the show and racially diverse modern families laughing together at Ball's antics; Ball herself stands out in earlier scenes thanks to her blue dress, then later her trademark bright red hair (which was dyed). Less about the person than the icon, but warm and shiny for all that. (bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)

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April 15, 2024
Grades K-3 With Barrager's upbeat, 1950s-style artwork befitting the era of its subject, Guglielmo and Tourville's detail-packed work covers Lucille Ball's early life through her career built on the love of the sound of laughter. Toddler Lucy was so funny that an impromptu performance in a department store with her mother had the customers giving her money. Life at home was performance-filled, too, with Lucy putting on plays with her brother, but after her father died, they were sent to live with relatives who believed in the "seen and not heard" model of child-rearing. This was the beginning of hard times for Lucy, but she persevered and peaked with a show that even now is watched by more than 40 million people "EVERY SINGLE YEAR!" As well as imparting many facts for biography reports, the book includes insights into her character, like how she dyed her hair red to stand out on color TV and how her career really took off once she was allowed to finally be her hilarious self. A great choice for biography collections.

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