Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds
by Nancy Johnson James; illus. by Diana Ejaita
Primary    Cameron/Abrams    32 pp.
1/25    9781951836535    $18.99
e-book ed.  9798887070674    $17.09

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.

From the March/April 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.