Title: Mary Shelley
Series: Little People, Big Dreams
Author: Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
Illustrator: Yelena Bryksenkova
ISBN: 9781786037480          Language: English

Classification: Fiction
Type: Picture Book
Themes: author, biography, timelines

What's it about?
This is a condensed biography about Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

Embrace
The short sentences and easy vocabulary.

Beware
Frankenstein is the only work mentioned and that is an adult book.

It mentions about her relationship/running away with

My Thoughts
New release in the Little People, Big Dreams series that released on the 1st of October 2019.

I thought the choice of Mary Shelley was odd considering she wrote Frankenstein. Like all in the series, this is a simple biography of the author. It starts on the rather grim note of her mother dying and wanting to not be around her step-mother. I found it odd that it mentioned that her lover, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was married already. Now, I understand that's a fact in the matter but what doesn't it have to do with Mary's writing career? I think it distracted from the story as that is about him rather than her.

I read this one with my children and both commented on the 'weird' illustrations. We've read many from this series but the oddly angled illustrations just didn't view well for my children, and admittedly, for me either. The style is really appealing except for the angling.

I would be tempted to only use this one with older students unless I had an abridged version of Frankenstein. A study into her life as always could be completed.

Overall, I just didn't find this story as compelling or relevant as others and wouldn't be the first one I would choose to use from the series.

Just an addition note: I found it odd that everywhere I looked the illustrations were being attributed to Julie Morstad rather than Yelena Bryksenkova (who is credited on the book cover). They appear to be different people - I just found that strange.

More books in the series