Fascinating: The Life of Leonard Nimoy

Michelson (Twice as Good) takes advantage of his friendship and professional relationship with the late Nimoy, whose photographs he has displayed in his Massachusetts gallery, to craft a warm and moving picture book biography that reveals the impact of the actor's family and Jewish upbringing on his life and career. With a knack for elegantly weaving biographical and contextual details into the narration, Michelson highlights young Lenny's early flirtations with the stage and photography, his eventual decision to leave Boston for Hollywood to pursue acting, and the roots of Mr. Spock's famous Vulcan greeting gesture in Jewish tradition. Working in a subdued palette of muted blues and browns, Rodriguez (Sonia Sotomayor) captures the 1930s%E2%80%931940s Boston of Nimoy's childhood and creates instantly recognizable images of the adult actor in the role of Star Trek's Spock in flat, posterlike images softened by gauzy, weathered texturing. Closing notes offer additional insights into the actor's life and legacy, and also reveal that Nimoy himself approved and offered suggestions on the manuscript before his death in 2015. Ages 4%E2%80%938. Illustrator's agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Sept.)