For this installment of our weekly book reviews from Booklist, the American Library Association’s nationally distributed book and media review publication, we have Angela Leeper’s review of “Both Sides Now: A Story About Young Joni Mitchell” by Lydia Corry, first published March 1, 2026.
Enjoy.
“Both Sides Now: A Story About Young Joni Mitchell”
By Lydia Corry. Illus. by the author. May 2026. 144p. Holt/Godwin, $20.99 (9781250362926). Grades 4-7.
Corry follows her examination of Emily Dickinson (“Wildflower Emily,” 2024) with another graphic biography of a woman creative’s childhood. With few children’s titles about music legend Joni Mitchell, this lovely book satisfies a gap. Corry narrates facts from young Joni’s life, filling in details and imagining her thoughts through first-person speech bubbles. Open scenes imbued with soft yellows and browns convey the Saskatchewan prairie, where Joni was raised, while blue skies filled with crows foreshadow her later lyrics. But before she became a singer and songwriter, Joni experimented with art, poetry, piano, and guitar. At 10, the girl’s life comes to a standstill when she develops polio, with episodic hospital experiences depicted in a somber cyan. As Joni recovers and contends with a weakened left hand, she learns to adapt her guitar playing and creates her unique sound in the process. With this, color not only returns to the scenes, but Corry wonderfully takes on Joni’s artistic style, increasingly weaving in bright illustrations reflective of the felt-pen designs Mitchell used on many of her album covers, reinforcing her proclamation, “I’m a painter who writes songs.” Concluding facts and a discography add more information about pivotal events in the musician’s life. A splendidly illustrated tribute that at once reveals Joni Mitchell’s inspirations and is inspirational in itself.— Angela Leeper
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