Dressing Up the Stars: A Picture Book Biography
Over the years that I’ve written about books for Dad Suggests, I’ve discovered that there is one particular genre that I always enjoy quite a bit: picture book biographies. Inspiring stories of real life trailblazers and heroes, paired with a talented illustrator, almost always leave me with an experience where I learn just as much as the kids do.
I suppose I should have been able to predict how much I would like them, because every single time I had to read a biography for school I ended up fascinated by the subjects’ full and interesting lives. But after all these years, it still kind of hits me as a surprise how much I enjoy them. Perhaps it’s hard to get past my preconceived notion that picture books are best used on fiction and fantasy.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored article from The Children’s Book Review and Jeanne Walker Harvey. All thoughts, opinions, and recommendations remain our own.
And the latest picture book biography to grace our shelves and smash my preconceived notions is called Dressing the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head. Once again I’ve learned just as much as my kids about a famous person. At yet again it’s a famous person who I undoubtedly should have heard about before - but somehow haven’t. But cases like that make it all the more interesting really.
Edna Mode from The Incredibles © Disney Pixar
And if you’re craving an even more interesting hook, what your kids might find immediately intriguing is that Edith Head is widely considered to be the inspiration for a very popular Pixar character: Edna Mode from The Incredibles. Based on her signature hairstyle, her glasses, her personality, and the obvious fact that she’s a costume designer, it’s very safe to say that Edith Head was on their mind during Edna’s design process.
But the hook of the beloved Edna Mode is not required to make Edith’s real life story engaging. Author Jeanne Walker Harvey weaves an endearing tapestry of anecdotes that makes it easy to fall in love with young Edith. From growing up in the middle of a Nevada desert, to her lonely tea parties with stuffed animals, to asking door to door for fabric scraps to sew costumes for her pets - how could you not root for her success?
Edith’s story begins, as I believe all good picture book biographies do, with a heavy emphasis on her childhood. Undoubtedly these are the details that kids are going to relate to the most and the parts many kids want to hear the most about. Sometimes picture book biographies are stuffed with tons of details and accomplishments and history from cover to cover, but Harvey and illustrator Diana Toledano find room to dedicate entire two-page spreads to moments like making sofas for pet horned toads, and falling in love with going to the movie theater.
Most of all, I particularly loved to discover how passionate Edith was about costumes from such a young age. The fact that Edith’s first costume clients were her dog, her cat, her rabbit, and her burros - the impeccably named Mr. and Mrs. So and So - is a solid gold detail that sets this book off to a great start.
As a dad who is very interested in parenting, and very specifically the education part of parenting, I love the fact that Edith already knew what interested her, but didn’t really know how she could do it for a living. That’s a familiar story for tons of people on this planet, and something we should be way better at helping our kids with.
Edith ended up going to college to become a teacher, but thankfully for her (and for Hollywood history) she realized it wasn’t the career for her. I truly think that the arc of her story is a wonderful lesson for kids - a reminder to chase the things they’ve always loved to do, ever since they were little.
In Edith’s case it was designing costumes and dressing people up. She loved that she could use her talents to help people transform into something else. Even when she was little she liked to dress up her friends for their plays - but preferred to stay backstage herself. And one day her love of movies and costumes drew her to quit her teaching job and start working as a sketch artist in a costume department.
This particular scene of the book, when Edith is at her first job, includes the fact that her boss laughed at her when he saw how bad she was at drawing. But it leaves out a hilariously crucial detail. According to an interview Edith Head gave, her boss actually laughed at her because she was a complete fraud. Apparently, she had gathered up all of the best art from her students at school to put in her portfolio when she applied for the job!
The fact that she got away with that, that her boss didn’t fire her, and that this sly little career change led to 8 Oscars in costume design is just too wonderful. She went on to dress stars like Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn, and her 8 Oscars are more than any other woman in history. Allegedly her boss let her keep that first job because of her passion for the work, and I think that’s an interesting and powerful lesson for children as well.
Edith turns out to be a great role model for kids, and I love sharing her story with them. Pursuing and working on the things that make you happy is a worthy goal to strive for. Being able to take your passions and turn them into a fulfilling career is definitely a privilege, but it’s a privilege not every kid realizes is even a possibility. Dreams are always possible, and figuring out how to do what you love is just about as good as it gets.
Enter for a chance to win a set of five copies of Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head!
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The giveaway begins August 15, 2021, at 12:01 A.M. MT and ends September 15, 2021, at 11:59 P.M. MT.
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You can get your hands on Dressing Up the Stars when it comes out on September 20th. And for a closer look at the book, make sure to follow along on the virtual book tour.
What’s your favorite picture book biography? Let us know in the comments!
