Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem

November 1, 2024
Grades K-3 In this introduction to underrepresented Black poet Myra Viola Wilds, James writes in simple yet engaging rhyming verse that serves both as a vehicle by which readers can learn about the life and times of an important historical poet and as a heartfelt tribute to Wilds' poetry. James emphasizes Wilds' struggles as a Black woman seeking urban opportunities during the turn of the twentieth century. By dint of hard work and sheer determination, Wilds becomes a successful dressmaker, but that ultimately comes at a great cost: her eyesight. Not letting her vision loss stop her, Wilds put her creative powers to paper by writing poems, despite not being able to see the page. James' poetry is beautifully accompanied by Ejaita's richly textured and vibrant patchwork illustrations, which emphasize both Wilds' dressmaking work and her dynamic creativity. The verses' focus on following dreams gives the book an inspiring tone. A brief history of Wilds' life and times appears in the back matter, and two examples of her poems illuminate her talent in this meaningful biography.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 15, 2024
Myra Viola Wilds turned to poetry after years of fine dressmaking ruined her eyesight. Two of Wilds' poems, "Thoughts" and "Dewdrops," bookend the text. In spare verse laced with unforced rhymes, James stitches sparsely known details into a tender tapestry of a creative life. Like other Black Americans taking part in the Great Migration, Wilds left rural Kentucky for a city where she could learn to read and ply a trade. Though Wilds made dresses for those much wealthier than her, James describes her dressmaking as a creatively gratifying art form: "Sitting sewing gorgeous gowns / and fashionable frocks to wear to town. // ...Formal for important places, / big ideas, and serious faces." Extending James' captivating verse, Ejaita depicts Wilds as heroic, a silhouetted figure towering over the landscape as she migrates from countryside to city. In one double-page spread, a gritty, charcoal-like texture blurs a dress's colorful details, representing Wilds' failing vision. In others, herringbone tweeds, bright colors, and hatched and contoured lines lovingly present Wilds' dresses. As she shifts from dressmaking to poetry, her needle becomes a pen, and thread flows into letterforms. A brown child is portrayed and addressed at beginning and end--another set of bookends. James' cogent historical note sets Wilds' story within the fraught period between Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow laws. Beautifully crafted and compellingly celebratory. (photograph)(Picture-book biography. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 11, 2024
“Dream a world, dream a time,/ and the story of a girl./ Dream Myra Viola Wilds/ dressmaker long ago.” Mellifluous verse from Johnson James chronicles the life of dressmaker and poet Wilds (1875–1935) from the Kentucky town “where dreams went unfulfilled” to a city where she eventually soars. There, Wilds becomes a dressmaker of formal frocks “fancy, frilly, even funny,/ looking sweet like flowery honey.” The close work damages her eyesight, but “Myra’s art could still be made,” her medium turning from dressmaking to poetry. In stunning saturated colorblock illustrations that foreground Wilds’s work and transformation, Ejaita plays with scale and proportion. Characters appear in colorful silhouettes. More about the figure, and two of her poems, is included. Ages 4–8.

March 1, 2025
James introduces young readers to the life and work of Myra Viola Wilds (1875-1935), a Black woman who became a renowned dress designer and dressmaker, and then an acclaimed poet. Wilds's life unfolds via James's loose quatrains, often using off-rhymes, that sketch her story in broad strokes -- her beginnings in rural Kentucky, her success as a dressmaker and the subsequent loss of her sight, and her creativity then taking the form of writing poetry. The language of James's poems echoes Wilds's own, with a focus on the thoughts and dreams that empowered her. Bold and color-drenched illustrations propel the story forward, through expansive images echoing the vivid collage work of Matisse, with the added texture of chalk or fabric or paint. A central figure -- a woman in profile cut from black or brown paper -- is the focus, but details of birds, flowers, and geometric swirls add dimension. An endnote provides further biographical information; an archival photograph of Wilds and her poem "Dewdrops" conclude the book. Sylvia Vardell

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)