If a biography is written in first person, I guess it’s not technically a biography. But Bloom, a picture book about the life of Elsa Schiaparelli, manages to tell the story beautifully with that first person frame.

On the opening pages we learn that Schiaparelli was not the baby boy her parents had been hoping for:

Every story starts somewhere.

My story begins on September 10, 1890, in a beautiful palazzo in the center of Roma. That’s in Italy.

Imagine a quiet room. Imagine a newborn baby looking up to see her pappa frowning, her mamma frowning.

I can’t imagine a stronger emotional link for the reader. And the book continues to explore the intense feelings and experiences of the innovative designer.

I loved reading about the artists that were Schiaparelli’s friends–Picasso, Picabia, Dali.

The story weaves in quotations so skillfully that I found myself needing to stop and look to see if those were really quotation marks, as when she describes discovering the shade of hot pink:

The color flashed in front of my eyes. Bright, impossible, impudent, becoming, life-giving…

The book’s end papers are, of course, gorgeous hot pink pages. The only thing missing is the librarian or teacher’s hot pink ensemble, which somehow seems like the appropriate garb when sharing this book.

Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Julie Morstad. Harper Collins: 2018.

Alyson Beecher hosts the Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge at kidlitfrenzy.com. Visit there for more great nonfiction picture books!