Fashionista by Maxine Beneba Clarke
Hachette, 2019. ISBN: 9780734418975.
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Themes: Fashion, Individuality, Self image. A
bright and breezy homage to being yourself is offered by Clarke in
this exciting book. Each page offers a different set of clothing and
movements as the young person dons different swathes of clothes, all
individually teamed with a choice of other accessories to make a
statement. This is me!
Each page exhorts the reader to stand out from the crowd, be
individual, be different, follow their own hearts rather than follow
the restrictions others may place on them.
In bold rhyming lines, which encourage the reader to predict the
rhyming words, the text flows across each page, using differing
fonts to engage and attract the reader.
But the images are outstanding: each page is full of movement as the
characters show off the clothes they are wearing, sometimes just the
heads are shown, displaying the hair colour, hair cuts or hats,
sometimes the feet are shown with different shoes, but mostly each
page has a full body image, full of life, humour and colour as each
image says quite clearly -
This is me and I am proud.
Nods to fashion icons, Prince, Beyonce and Serena Williams appear in
the book, along with the everyday clothing bought from stores,
recycled from friends or the charity shop, handed down from family.
Clarke uses collage effectively, teaming her watercolour pencil with
magazine cut-outs placed onto textured paper. Some classes will have
a great deal of fun using her techniques as a basis for their own
work after reading this book.
Full of bounce, verve and humour, readers will love looking at the
variety of colour and style Clarke shows in her salute to being an
individual, encouraging the readers to look differently at what they
wear.
Fran Knight