Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment

A New York Times bestseller

A visit to Washington, DC's National Portrait Gallery forever alters Parker Curry's young life when she views First Lady Michelle Obama's portrait.

When Parker Curry came face-to-face with Amy Sherald's transcendent portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery, she didn't just see the First Lady of the United States. She saw a queen--one with dynamic self-assurance, regality, beauty, and truth who captured this young girl's imagination. When a nearby museum-goer snapped a photo of a mesmerized Parker, it became an internet sensation. Inspired by this visit, Parker, and her mother, Jessica Curry, tell the story of a young girl and her family, whose trip to a museum becomes an extraordinary moment, in a moving picture book.

Parker Looks Up follows Parker, along with her baby sister and her mother, and her best friend Gia and Gia's mother, as they walk the halls of a museum, seeing paintings of everyone and everything from George Washington Carver to Frida Kahlo, exotic flowers to graceful ballerinas. Then, Parker walks by Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama...and almost passes it. But she stops...and looks up

Parker saw the possibility and promise, the hopes and dreams of herself in this powerful painting of Michelle Obama. An everyday moment became an extraordinary one...that continues to resonate its power, inspiration, and indelible impact. Because, as Jessica Curry said, "anything is possible regardless of race, class, or gender."

**FOREWORD BY ARTIST AMY SHERALD**

Author: Parker Curry, Jessica Curry
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
Published: 10/15/2019
Pages: 40
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 11.10h x 9.30w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9781534451865
Audience: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 2.8
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 505249 / Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2019 pg. 97
Publishers Weekly 10/28/2019
School Library Journal 11/15/2019 pg. 1
Shelf Awareness 11/19/2019
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2019 - Recommended, Satisfactory

About the Author
Parker Curry, six years old, is a New York Times bestselling author and dynamic young mind with a love for ballet and reading. Currently, Parker is in first grade, where she loves to explore art and new books. Precocious Parker lives with her mother, father, younger sister, and baby brother.

Jessica Curry Morton is a New York Times bestselling author, mom-favorite blogger, and work-at-home mama who lives with her husband and three children Parker, Ava, and Cash. Jessica's blog, Happy Mama, Happy Babies, is an authentic motherhood and lifestyle platform that shares her family's adventures, growth chronicles, and everything in between.

Brittany Jackson (Bea for short) is a New York Times bestselling illustrator who attended the College for Creative Studies and is the grand prize winner and returned alumni of L. Ron Hubbard's Illustrator of the Future Award of 2007. Bea has worked in freelance as a character and outfit designer for various social networking and gaming platforms for more than eight years, though she is most publicly known in publishing as an illustrator.