Can You Imagine?: The Art and Life of Yoko Ono
by Lisa Tolin; illus. by Yas Imamura
Primary, Intermediate    Atheneum    48 pp.
2/25    9781534487789    $19.99
e-book ed.  9781534487796    $10.99

Throughout her life, Yoko Ono (b. 1933) has found herself caught between two places: her vivid, hopeful imagination and the harsh, critical world around her. As a child, she moved from Japan to America and back again as World War II broke out. An outsider in each place, she found solace in her thoughts, where she could hope for peace. As she grew up, she began to make art of her own, but her unique perspective wasn’t always well received. She created experimental art, such as a piece of music meant to be played by strawberries and violins. She hosted a “happening” in which the audience was invited to cut off pieces of the suit she wore onstage. As envisioned by Imamura, the exaggerated faces in the crowd convey nearly every possible response to Ono’s display: tears, anger, horror, delight. She meets John Lennon at one of her exhibits, and together they “imagine” (the book highlights Ono’s contributions to the famous song, which, per the back matter, she later received credit for co-writing) and demonstrate what peace could be. Imamura’s appropriately eclectic illustrations often suspend Ono in the midst of twirling ideas, emotions, and circumstances. Thorough back matter includes portions of her life omitted from the story, including her two marriages prior to Lennon and the custody battle over her daughter, Kyoko. Although Ono is known by many solely because of her adjacency to the Beatles, Tolin centers her subject’s own rich, sometimes polarizing, life advocating for peace, creativity, and individuality.

From the May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.