Smile: How Young Charlie Chaplin Taught the World to Laugh (and Cry)
by Gary Golio (Author) Ed Young (Illustrator)
An award-winning author and a Caldecott Medalist take a creative look at the early life of comedic genius Charlie Chaplin.
Once there was a little slip of a boy who roamed the streets of London, hungry for life (and maybe a bit of bread). His dad long gone and his actress mother ailing, five-year-old Charlie found himself onstage one day taking his mum's place, singing and drawing laughs amid a shower of coins. There were times in the poorhouse and times spent sitting in the window at home with Mum, making up funny stories about passersby. And when Charlie described a wobbly old man he saw in baggy clothes, with turned-out feet and a crooked cane, his mother found it sad, but Charlie knew that funny and sad go hand in hand. With a lyrical text and exquisite collage imagery, Gary Golio and Ed Young interpret Charlie Chaplin's path from his childhood through his beginnings in silent film and the creation of his iconic Little Tramp. Keen-eyed readers will notice a silhouette of the Little Tramp throughout the book that becomes animated with a flip of the pages. An afterword fills in facts about the beloved performer who became one of the most famous entertainers of all time.
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Publishers Weekly
Golio and Young create a lively and poetic homage to Charlie Chaplin. Despite living in poverty, Chaplin's household fostered his love of acting, clowning, and musical theater. Golio's rhythmic prose conjures the spirit of tragicomedy behind Chaplin's performances: "Charlie began to understand/ How Funny and Sad went hand in hand." Young's ink and torn paper collage-work includes newsprint, colored paper, fabrics, and shadowy silhouettes; the sophisticated, abstract images communicate the exaggerated theatricality of silent film, as well as Chaplin's iconic style and underlying complexity. Ages 8-12. (Mar.)
Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.School Library Journal
Gr 1-5--The duo that illuminated musicians Bird and Diz present the backstory of an internationally acclaimed silent film star, director, and composer. Golio has wisely selected moments from Chaplin's 19th-century London childhood that are laden with sensory components or emotional connections: "Laughing children with colored balloons / A flower seller with his jingly cart and horse...." Scaffolding the heights and depths of life with an absent actor father and a musical mother whose illness led to the poorhouse, the author traces experiences Charlie and his brother absorbed before becoming vaudevillians themselves (the book concludes before adult complexities arise). Throughout pratfalls with troupes in England and America, the siblings and their audiences discerned that "Laughter and Tears were brothers, too." Young's inventive, mixed-media collages play with this duality by balancing subdued scenes with bursts of joyous color. The penultimate spread depicts the tramp costume, freshly fashioned for cinema, stretching diagonally across the gutter--a brown shadow emerging from a patchwork canopy snipped from previous scenes. It echoes the burlap crowd from Chaplin's earliest street dances and prepares readers for the final iconic photograph. Thoughtful design presents the blank verse rendered in white on black--or the reverse--paying homage to the subject's filmmaking, as does the tramp silhouette on the base of each recto that animates when flipped. VERDICT Adults will appreciate the informative and creative approach, as well as the afterword, bibliography, and textual nod to the titular lyrics. Children will cheer for the class clown's success.--Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library
Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
—Publishers Weekly (starred review) Golio and Young's final product is one with undeniable appeal...Young's collage-and-ink art, with its signature abstractness, is made especially accessible: its shadows, shapes, and outlines suggest and show the subject's evolution up until the last page turn, when an instantly recognizable photograph of Chaplin's iconic character cinematically snaps it all into place...a bottom-corner page flip animates the Tramp's signature walk; and the entire package will indeed bring a smile.
—Booklist (starred review) Children meet Chaplin in this intimate biography of the iconic silent-film comedian, whose movies, humor, and story grow ever more distant to each generation of readers...Observant readers might notice the black silhouette of a little tramp in the bottom-right corner of each spread. Those intuitive enough to flip the pages will delight in a primitive but undeniably magical experience. Readers who watch him waddle their way and extend a wave are certain to return his timeless greeting.
—Kirkus Reviews The duo that illuminated musicians Bird and Diz present the backstory of an internationally acclaimed silent film star, director, and composer...Thoughtful design presents the blank verse rendered in white on black—or the reverse—paying homage to the subject's filmmaking, as does the tramp silhouette on the base of each recto that animates when flipped. -Adults will appreciate the informative and creative approach, as well as the afterword, bibliography, and textual nod to the titular lyrics. Children will cheer for the class clown's success.
—School Library Journal This biography of an icon of the silent film will charm its readers with the exquisite, colorful ink and torn-paper collage images and its lyrical text.
—New York Journal of Books Smile pairs a wonderful tale that brings a lyrical quality to the story and beautiful illustrations that will capture any little and not so little one's attention.
—The Way We Watch (blog) An outstanding tribute to a genuine icon of the entertainment industry, Smile: How Young Charlie Chaplin Taught the World to Laugh (and Cry) is fascinating and thoroughly inspirational in every way.
—Kendal A. Rautzhan's "Books to Borrow...Books to Buy" Ed Young's illustrations...evoke Chaplin's black-and-white movies and his versatile physicality, adding the perfect (occasionally comical) touch to the story.
—Virginian-Pilot
JNF039050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Performing Arts | Theater
JNF039030 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Performing Arts | Film
United States
Motion picture actors and actresses
Actors and actresses
Comedians
Chaplin, Charlie
