Frida Kahlo

by Kristy Placido

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is one of Mexico's greatest artists, a remarkable achievement for someone who spent most of her relatively short life racked with pain. Frida expressed her pain through her art, producing some 143 paintings, 55 of which were self-portraits. To this day, she remains an icon of strength, courage and audacity. This brief biography provides a glimpse into her turbulent life and her symbolic art.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Nonfiction, School, Read For School

71 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh wait, I finished this book.

[Diamond Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I currently reading page 35 chapter 9, Now I’m reading about her teenage life how she was in love with a Alex. And her tragic bus accident that has affected her life. And the sad feeling she has to face when gets older in her life. And her brake up with Alex. I like the books so far it gives us a better insight of her life and background story. And her feelings towards all the events that had happened to her. That these details are why she express her self and her art painting with so much pain or mix emotion.

[Michele Lash · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, Spanish-language reader that give a great summary of the challenges Frida Kahlo faced in her life.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished the book in class, I forgot.

[Nabeel · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

[clare e. newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

i learned a lot about frida

[Kaela Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fairly easy to comprehend. I took Spanish in high school for four years, and am now in my second and final quarter of Spanish in college. I did have to look up some of the words in the back of the book, but I did not have to keep switching back and forth between the pages in order to read it. Reading it helped to expand my Spanish vocabulary, but I really enjoyed reading it because I learned about the hidden aspects of Frida Kahlo's life. I was not sure that I was interested in reading about her, I simply chose a book to read, but I was fully engaged with the reading by the end of the second chapter. If reading about the ups and downs of someone's life does not interest you, then this book is not for you. If you want to expand your Spanish vocabulary, then I say give it a try.

[Wheatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a Spanish teacher and included this book as part of our Frida Kahlo unit. The reading level is low and easy, which is helpful. This book does a nice, clean job of laying out key events in Frida's life. There is one chapter, about China Poblano, that seems out of place and awkward, but otherwise the rest of the stories were ones I know from my experience with Frida bios. A good book option for learning about Frida's life at a G-rated level of content (rather than the R rated truths).

[Andrea Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is great! Truth is truly stranger than fiction, and Frida's life is full of fascinating characters and unexpected twists.

[Jami Hart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many words not in the glosario that I had to look up on GOOGLE!

[Antonia Rapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this biography about Frida Kahlo. It speaks about her childhood and early adulthood in depth, and I learned many things about her that I did not know before. My only issue with the book is that it did not talk very much about her life in later adulthood, which is the time she is most famous for. I found this quite odd because that was the part I was expecting the book to be mostly about. Another thing I didn’t like was that the novel ended very abruptly. Other than that I have no complaints, it was a great, easy read and was very entertaining. Would definitely recommend to another Spanish learner.

[Gloria Olivas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel on Frida Kahlo was interesting, insightful, and fairly easy to read. Taking Spanish at the intermediate level, I was able to get through the book and very seldom refered to the glossary to translate. I was interested in reading the book because, as of recently, Frida Kahlo has become more iconic. I also have seen the movie Frida with Selma Hyak in the past. The story was very straightforward with a matter-of-fact tone. The tragedies of her life did not come off very sad. I did appreciate, however, how far back in her history the author went. I was intrigued by her parents’ tale. I would recommend this to anyone learning the language.

[Johannie K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find Frida Kahlo to be an interesting figure in history and in Spanish studies overall, so I enjoyed reading this biography. For being a much smaller biography than others, it was dense with information. It did seem to focus more of her earlier years than on her and her actual works, the latter of which I wish they did more of here. I’ve taken Spanish for three years at my university and while this book seem to be more geared towards those with more experience with reading just in Spanish, I found more easier to read without relying on the glossary. While there were some words that required looking up, there were some others that already on the bottoms of pages which helped greatly.

[Christina Despain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Admiro mucho a Frida Kahlo y fue un placer leer esta biografía muy bien escrito por Placido. Al leer este libro, un lector puede aprender de su familia y su juventud, su arte, las tragedias que había sufrido pero también las victorias que había logrado y como mostró los dos al mundo a través de su arte. Para mí, su vida ordinaria y extraordinaria, lleno de pasión, sufrimiento, humanidad, creatividad, fuerza y capacidad para adaptarse es realmente una inspiración y es...arte. Quiero este libro en mi biblioteca de FVR para que mis estudiantes tengan la oportunidad de aprender de esa gran mujer mexicana que es la Frida Kahlo.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite me having to read this for a class, I did enjoy it. It was my first time reading a book in another language, but it was a really great experience for me as a student. I highly recommend to anyone looking to read a book in Spanish, especially if they have been learning the language for a short time.

[Lyn Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is weird to review because this book is meant to beginner Spanish learners so the writing inevitably was basic and jumped around a bunch. It was still really interesting to learn about the life of Frida and the people in her life. This was a quick read, but definitely a good change in tempo from all the other books I've been reading this summer.

[Rickee1368 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little elementary-level biography of Frida Kahlo, written entirely in Spanish. Since I don’t speak Spanish, I inferred much of the text from context clues and my knowledge of Latin roots and my studies of French. She definitely had an interesting life, fraught with disaster. This little book makes me want to read a more thorough biography (in English!).

[Aven · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I'm being forced to read these for school, I'm going to make them count towards my Goodreads goal. But in all seriousness, this was a quick and relatively easy way to catch a simplified glimpse of Kahlo's life which was very interesting.

[Makenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leí esta libro para un escuela secundario espanol 3 clase. No me gusta mucho, pero fue interesante. La vida de Frida Kahlo es muy interesante, su dolor y su obras de arte. En todos, esta un libro bueno para gentes si son aprendando espanol.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

For as short as it was, I learned a lot about Frida Kahlo. The story it told was a little all over the place, but it was entertaining enough. I wish it would have talked a little more about her art and even shown a few examples. It was a pretty easy read, but I enjoyed reading in Spanish and not having to focus so much on translating. The words were very simple and there were a lot of cognates. It was a nice, but easy practice for me. I didn’t like the way it was fatphobic towards Diego Rivera. The art in the book was not very good, but the photos were nice references. I would recommend it to beginning readers or people who feel a little rusty in their Spanish skills and want something to ease back into it with.

[Anthonyspranger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hola

[aisha]

read for spanish class and did a whole test on it so i’m counting it. beginner spanish so true <333

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My students are enjoying this book so far. They are kind of shocked and appalled by some of the relationship dynamics in Frida's family. Great opportunities to analyze preterite vs imperfect.

[abby · Rating 1 out of 5]

i did not like this book. I did not like this unit. please don't read it.

[Nour · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for la clase de español

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good practice reading in Spanish.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well it was interesting reading about the troubled eccentric and talented artist, Kahlo. This book is , written in Spanish; the main objective is for anglophiles to improve their knowledge of Spanish, the past perfect and imperfect tenses in particular.

Having stated the book's main purpose, understand that the book won't go in great detail during her artistic period. Probably the intended audience is secondary school students. It is apparent that most of the book covers her premarriage/career years. Subsequently there's a time leap and she is interviewed near the end of her life. In other words, the pacing is uneven.

Kahlo is a rather tragic figure. Had she been in a more supportive surrounding, she could have produced work that was compelling yet encouragi

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great whole class read to follow huellas 1.1. Will follow with small group reads of the book on Flangoo & an artist project.

[b ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for spanish class, 2021

[Emmy]

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