Little People Big Dreams

The Little People Big Dreams series is published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.

Written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and translated into English by Emma Martinez, this biographical series featuring iconic women for young readers is set to capture our hearts and imaginations big time.

Starting with Coco Chanel and Frida Kahlo earlier this year, we can look forward to seeing Amelia Earhart and Maya Angelou (written by US author Lisbeth Kaiser writing her first children's book) next month and Agatha Christie and Marie Curie early next year.

I see on Goodreads that Vegara also has a Spanish edition of Audrey Hepburn that I hope we see translated into English very soon.

Vegara is from Barcelona. According to the Quarto webpage, she aims to "combine creativity with learning, aiming to establish a new and fresh relationship between children and pop culture."

Coco Chanel is illustrated by Ana Albero. She grew up in Spain, studied art in Paris and is now based in Berlin. Using graphite and coloured pencils, Albero's illustrations reflect her graphic art experience with Biografiktion, which features comic-style stories about real people. (One of her previous projects was on Abba - I would love to see a Little People, Big Dreams treatment about that!)

Having read many, many bio's on Chanel over the years, I can tell you that her story here has been romanticised and sanitized to suit its intended young audience. Something that Chanel, the mistress of reinterpretation, would approve of wholeheartedly.

The moral of Chanel's story is that being different is okay.

Frida Kahlo is illustrated by Gee Fan Eng, a Malaysian based illustrator.

Difference, or 'specialness' is one of the main themes again, although Kahlo's courage and determination is also stressed. Her ability to overcome and persevere against such extreme adversity is one of the truly inspirational elements to her story. As Kahlo was famous for saying, 'viva lavida' - live life!

Thanks to an exhibition currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW, the Frida book has been spotted everywhere.

(My post about my visit to the Kahlo - Rivera exhibition is here).

We have had a copy in our window display at work for over a month now.

I love hearing young kids walk by and exclaim loudly to their slightly bemused parents, "that's Frida Kahlo!"

As someone who happily courted and collaborated in projecting a very specific image of herself out into the world, I'm sure Kahlo would be delighted to see the cult of Frida (Los Fridos) continues through a new generation of devotees on the other side of the world.

Both books contain a timeline at the back to give the young reader a little more detail.

Thanks to the research I did for this post, I am now following several new illustrators on Instagram.

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty

Rosie Revere loves to make things - unusual things - useful things - like a special hat to keep off snakes for her uncle who works in the zoo.

Unfortunately, he laughs at Rosie's invention and she takes it to heart and decides never to make anything again for fear of failing.

A visit by her great great aunt - an elderly lady, called Rose, sporting a blue workers smock and red bandana, changes all that though, as Rosie learns an important lesson about failure & success, mistakes and trying again.

This is an empowering story for girls that taps into the Rosie the Riveter ethos from WW2. A time when women were encouraged to try new jobs, learn new skills and have a go - for the good of the nation, while the men were at war.

Occasionally the rhyme is a little clunky, but the heart & soul behind the text makes up for that.

Highly recommended for 3+ young readers as well as primary schools everywhere.

Ruby Red Shoes by Kate Knapp

You'll either love Ruby Red Shoes or you wont.

Some of you will read Ruby with a lump in your throat, a tear in your eye and an "oh how sweet" on your lips.

The rest of you will go "oh too saccharine sweet for me"!

Either way though you will have to agree that Kate Knapp's heart is in the right place.

Ruby is an aware hare who lives with her grandmother. She is environmentally friendly, sensitive and gentle. Ruby loves strawberry jam and peppermint tea.

Ruby's grandmother is thoughtful and nurturing.

Sweet? Definitely.
But now that the end of the world has been and gone perhaps focusing on sweetness and light and all things nice is a better, more satisfying way to spend our time!


Kate is fairly well known in Australia for her affirmation card range. Her illustrations & quotes are delightful, quaint and sentimental.

My favourites include:

"Words have wings so speak good things."

"The time to be happy is now.
The place to be happy is here.
The way to be happy is to make others so."

Ruby Red Shoes has been one of our runaway Christmas best sellers at work.
It's a big hit with Grandmothers and 6 year old girls alike - the perfect book for sharing and caring together.

I've included this post on Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday 'K' post.