“The duo behind Julia, Child offers a bold first-person biography of designer Elsa Schiaparelli.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Morstad’s vivid mixed-media have an imaginativeness to match Schiaparelli’s surrealistic designs (playing with a beloved uncle as a child, she soars amid the stars and planets of the cosmos) and feature splashes of Schiaparelli’s trademark shade of pink...[It’s] a dramatic tribute worthy of its audacious subject.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“With beautiful, richly colorful, and playful artwork nicely evoking the character of its subject, this lyrical biography of Elsa Schiaparelli offers picture-book readers an enlightening introduction to the wildly inventive and influential fashion designer.” — Booklist
“Morstad’s delicate watercolor illustrations do a great job of depicting Schiaparelli’s designs, but subtle hints—pink flowers composed of dresses, shoes, and gloves, for instance—emphasize how Schiaparelli’s view of the world shaped her artwork.” — Booklist
“Little ones who “dare to be different” will be inspired.” — Booklist
“In full scenes and vignettes, Morstad’s mixed-media paintings capture the lanky, classy panache of Schiap and her designs.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Using Schiaparelli herself as narrator, this picture-book biography tells the story of her unsettled childhood and rise to premier couturier for a young audience.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Together Maclear and Morstad have created a picture book that, like Elsa’s art, is “daring, different, and whole” and that reminds us that “together, we BLOOM and BLOOM.”” — Jennifer Oleinik, Shelf Awareness (blog)
“Morstad’s (When Green Becomes Tomatoes) lush illustrations match Maclear’s enlightening narrative... [her] illustrations rise and fall with Elsa’s emotional and artistic journey.” — Jennifer Oleinik, Shelf Awareness (blog)