Dazzlin’ Dolly, as empowering and entertaining as illustrated books can be

Have you seen the Whitney Houston clip where she was recounting how Kevin Costner sole her on the idea of re-recording I Will Always Love You? Apparently, he really enjoyed country music and had presented the 1974 original song from Dolly Parton to Houston as an option for the movie that the two of them were making. The rest is history. Houston had the biggest song of her career and the first cultural renaissance of Dolly Parton had begun, not that she ever went anywhere. Dazzlin’ Dolly is an illustrated book that provides elementary school audiences with a great overview of her early life.

Dazzlin’ Dolly is also a very inspiring book. It’s rare when an illustrated book is able to tell a story and be inspiring. Granted, it’s often the ideal goal for readers to take nuggets that they read about, and then put them into action. Dazzlin’ Dolly has that same aspiration and then some. Through Parton’s early history, young readers will see what the impact of hope and dreams, combined with hard work and familial support, can accomplish. Even those grizzled adults will be hard-pressed to not establish a goal or chase a dream after they read the book.

The text in Dazzlin’ Dolly is written by Suzann Slade. It rhymes at times, but not with enough consistency to be a ‘rhyming book’. As a result, the text is more of a poetic narrative and comes across as telling a complete story.  It’s complemented with big full-page colored art by Edwin Fotheringham. Much like the other great illustrated books that we’ve run across, the true magic happens when the text is paired with the art.

Had the art been more realistic then the book would’ve had a different feel. If the text were more babyish or not poetic in nature then it would have the legs that it does or be able to reach older audiences. It’s still an illustrated book and the ceiling for those books is around 10 years old, which is consistent with Dazzlin’ Dolly.

You’ll learn that her family was so poor growing up that they had to put newspapers on the walls to beat down the draft. She came from a very large family and cobbled together her first guitar from old piano strings and a mandolin that she found in the trash. Dolly had her first live performance in front of strangers at a radio station when she was 10. The crowd loved her so much that it turned into a regular gig on a local television program.

She had struggles with lots of shows and people telling her no, but she kept on trying. The book does not delve into her adult life. It stops just after her high school graduation and then has a pair of pages that are written at a much more advanced level that lets adults or tween readers know more about her life. Older readers will enjoy reading about aspects of that because they’ll be reminded of all of the good that Parton has done thus far in her life.

Parton is amazing in business, as the co-owner of a water park, Dollywood Park, a production company, and more. She’s parlayed that success into helping the area where she’s from, Sevier County, Tennessee by reducing the high school dropout rate from 30% to 6%, founded the Imagination Library, donating millions of dollars to victims of wildfires and COVID research in 2020. There’s also a timeline and bibliography, for more reading about Parton’s life so far.

All of this is good and well, but will young readers enjoy or want to read Dazzin’ Dolly? That is a big ole, honky tonk yes. They might not know Dolly Parton, but they’ll know the person who performed with Miley Cyrus on New Year’s Eve. They might be performers themselves and need a great story about overcoming stage fright. They might come from a family that doesn’t have much, but they have dreams just as big as everyone else.

Dazzlin’ Dolly, The Songwriting, Hit-Singing, Guitar Picking Dolly Parton is a hoot. This is an illustrated book that kids will love and will remind older readers that overcoming obstacles is possible.

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