Under Pressure is about Freddie Mercury, an iconic singer of Parsi origin, who transitioned the band ‘Smile’ into the famous ‘QUEEN’ band in the 1970s, changing his name from Farokh Balsara to Freddie Mercury!
The book has two parts: the first weaves a set of information about his boarding school life, around what is shown as his first performance, adding numbers to each of the information—as a countdown of 10, 9, 8…; the second is a short bio of four pages with illustrations. It’s an interesting attempt at a biographical text of a different kind, for children in the 8 to 13 age group.
It is well illustrated and has minimal text on each page. However, the text takes the liberty to present some fictional things as facts, which is not a good thing to do, particularly for children who are just getting into reading complicated biographical and non-fiction texts. While the theme of nervousness at a first performance is a relatable one for young readers, it is not factual. Freddie is known to have been shy and had been bullied for his buck teeth in school, but there is no evidence of him showing nervousness; in fact, he formed his first band in the school itself! Secondly, because of the countdown style, the narrative becomes strained and stretched—nine songs to sing, eight months at boarding school…no connection to each other—similarly in the next ones.
The four pages of actual biography are simply put, and the pages are well designed. It provoked me to look up more on Freddie and listen to some of his songs. All in all, despite its weaknesses, the book is worth introducing to upper primary and middle school children:
It introduces an icon of the international music world, who had roots in India, a rare occurrence!
It has two kinds of texts—a simplified biographical note that has chosen the kinds of things young children would relate to, and the concept of a countdown and tackling fear.
The illustrations are well done. Expressions of Freddie and his friends and family show different expressions.