The Two Fridas: Memories Written by Frida Kahlo

“I must have been six years old when I formed an intense imaginary friendship with a girl... who was more or less my age.” The artist Frida Kahlo’s (1907–1954) charming first-person recollection of how she used to meet and play with an imaginary friend—a second Frida found behind a door drawn on a fogged-up window pane—offers a framework for Folì’s artistry. In his pictures, the real world is finely detailed but pencil-gray, but Frida’s imaginings burst with color, viridian leaves and pink roses, smiling parrots, and grinning skeletons bedecked in finery. The colors recur in the fantastical self-portraits shown in the adult Frida’s studio, and in the folds of her folkloric skirt, images of brightness in a drab world. In the ever-expanding universe of Kahlo picture books, this stands out for its creative approach and fidelity to the artist’s singularity. Includes a biography. Ages 5–8. [em](Mar.) [/em]