The Two Fridas is an intriguing picture book. Gianluca Foli (Wild in the City) uses a small selection of Frida Kahlo's diary entries as his text and illustrates in a manner that channels Kahlo but does not reproduce her artistic style.
Kahlo kept an illustrated journal for many years as an adult; a "fragment of her diary" included childhood memories of an imaginary friend. The Two Fridas starts with an irresistible line from this journal: "I must have been six years old when I formed an intense imaginary friendship with a girl... who was more or less my age." Frida draws an imaginary door and crosses the street to a creamery called PINZÓN. "I would dive in through the Ó in PINZÓN and TUMBLE down to the inside of the earth, where 'my imaginary friend' was always waiting for me." Some will surely think of Narnia, Alice and her adventures or other magical journeys where a child is whisked into a different world.
The text of the journal, translated from the Spanish, is straightforward, with many descriptive passages. Foli, an Italian illustrator and graphic artist, uses his knowledge of Kahlo's paintings, her love of animals and some symbols from Mexican folk culture (calaveras, or decorated skull images, are in evidence on several pages) to create haunting illustrations incorporating black and white sketches that expand to include intensely colored sections as Frida's imaginary world grows. While Foli's art is entirely original, he includes nods to Kahlo's imagery throughout. An author's note at book's end provides information about Kahlo's life, giving more information to culturally and artistically curious kids. --Melinda Greenblatt, freelance book reviewer