Oscar de la Renta

Narrates the story of the Dominican American who had studied art in Spain but gave up painting in order to pursue a career as a fashion designer

Gr 3-6--Despite their open, easy-to-read format and abundant black-and-white and full-color photos, these are uneven series entries. Carrillo's writing style is overly dramatic and unpolished, and, other than mentioning de la Renta's charity work with La casa del nino in his native Dominican Republic, he does little to expose the fashion designer's personality. The biography is mainly a straightforward listing of the phases of his career. Of the three, Raul Julia has the highest quality writing, with smoothly flowing sentences. In addition to recounting the actor's rise to fame on Broadway and in Hollywood, the authors address Julia's determination to avoid being typecast as a Hispanic actor while maintaining his Puerto Rican identity. In Gloria Estefan, Rodriguez uses short, choppy sentences and vague, colloquial language to describe the life of the Cuban-American singer/songwriter. The content is poorly researched and contains factual errors, such as labeling the University of Miami (which is in Florida) as Miami University (which is in Ohio) and listing the release date of the album Greatest Hits as 1993 instead of 1992. While this title might be popular, it is a substandard effort.

Denise E. Agosto, Midland County Public Library, TX

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.