A History of Pictures for Children - a review

A History of Pictures for Children: From Cave Paintings to Computer Drawings
By David Hockney and Martin Gayford
Illustrated by Rose Blake
Abrams, 2018

In A History of Pictures, art critic Martin Gayford teams up with artist David Hockney to deliver an enlightening and entertaining discourse on art.  The Introduction explains the book's format.  It is an illustrated discussion between the artist and the art critic, each offering commentary on what he knows best.  Gayford offers a more scholarly look at the history of an artistic period or work of art—the what and when, while Hockney offers an artists' perspective on the same—the why and the how.

Their conversations are accompanied by photos of actual  art pieces, and cartoon illustrations by Rose Blake. Blake's playful illustrations add a lightness to the book and advance the conversation, showing simple explanations of concepts like depth and perspective, as well as explanations of early artistic tools like 16th century pinhole projectors, 18th century silhouette machines, and 19th century zoetropes. The authors and the illustrator appear in cartoon format throughout the book. The topics of each chapter are listed below.

Engaging and educational, A History of Pictures for Children should be in every school and public library.  The suggested age range is 10-14 however, it will likely appeal to older kids with artistic interests as well.  I would go so far as to suggest that adults will find it interesting also.  I found it thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Well done!

 

Chapters:
Thinking About Pictures: Why do we make pictures?
Making Marks: What makes an interesting mark?
Light and Shadows: What is a shadow exactly?
Watch this Space: How do artists set the scene?
Mirrors and Reflections: How do artists play with light?
Painting and Photography: What tools do artists use?
Moving Pictures: Can pictures really move?
The Story Goes On: What's next for pictures?

Back matter includes an illustrated Timeline of Inventions, Glossary, Bibliography, List of Illustrations, and Index

The Mad Potter - a review

Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan. 2013. The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr, Eccentric Genius. New York: Roaring Brook.

This book, recognized as a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book, one of 2013's most distinguished informational books, is a photo-filled biography of George E. Ohr, a master of art pottery. A colorful character and far cry from the reticent or taciturn artist stereotype, Ohr was a self-proclaimed,
 "rankey krankey solid individualist," the "Greatest Art Potter on Earth," and "born free and patriotic, blowing my own bugle."

Sadly, his bravado did not serve him well in his lifetime, as one fan wrote,

"Mr. Ohr is by no means a crank, but is a naturally bright, even brilliant man, who has been led into the belief that the way for him to attain publicity is through the channel of preposterous advertising, and the signs which he placed round Biloxi do him more harm than good."

Still, he was confident in his own mastery of his craft, and future generations came to recognize that he was indeed brilliant.  The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art was built in his honor, and houses a permanent exhibition of his work.

The Mad Potter is a narrative chronology and includes a history of the museum, instructions on how to create a clay pot, extensive Notes, Bibliography and Picture Credits, and my favorite - "How to Look at a Pot," a useful interpretation of the language and method used in describing and evaluating pottery.

A fascinating glimpse into an artist's life, the art of pottery, and the nature and mindset of the art-collecting world.

Note:
Want to see the works of George Ohr?  There is a Pinterest board titled, "George Ohr & His Biloxi Pottery," dedicated to displaying photos of George Ohr and his creations.  Be sure to take a gander.


Today is Nonfiction Monday, and also the final day of our KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month celebration.  Please be sure to catch up on all of the wonderful posts!

A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin

Bryant, Jen. 2013. A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin. New York: Knopf.   Illustrated by Melissa Sweet.

(Review copy provided by the publisher)




If "a splash of red" was Horace Pippin's signature use of color,

"Make a picture for us, Horace!"

is the signature line in Jen Bryant's A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin. The phrase appears throughout this chronological account of Pippin's life and art, reminding the reader that although his first oil painting wasn't completed until  after he returned from duty in WWI and was more than forty years old, Horace Pippin's talent was recognized throughout his life by schoolmates, friends, family, co-workers and fellow soldiers, who frequently encouraged him to draw. As a child, he won a mail-in art contest and earned his first art set. A self-taught artist, and grandson of a former slave, Pippin's life was not easy,

Horace was in eighth grade when his father left for good.  The family needed money, so Horace quit school and went to work.

 For several years, Horace's big hands were always busy: stacking grain sacks at a feed store,
shoveling coat at a rail yard,
mending fences on a farm,
carrying luggage at t hotel,
making brakes in an iron factory ...
... packing oil paintings into large wooden crates.
Looking at these made Horace remember winning the art contest.  How proud he'd been!  How he'd loved those colored pencils, those brushes, and his first real box of paints!

In fact, after an injury to his drawing hand in the war, drawing and painting became even more difficult, but he persevered to become a renowned artist in his own lifetime. As told by Jen Bryant, his story is inspirational, his naive art style is accessible to children; and Melissa Sweet's interpretative illustrations, punctuated by the illustrator's renderings of Pippin's own words, bring them both to life. The collaborative work between writer and illustrator is apparent in A Splash of Red, as is their mutual regard for his life and work.

In addition to having its own website (http://asplashofredbook.com) with related articles and resources for teachers and librarians, the book contains Historical, Author and Illustrator Notes, as well as numerous sources, and suggestions for further reading.

The recommended age range is 5-8, however, older readers capable of understanding the Notes and other sources will find plenty of information here as well.  As always, I encourage teachers to give picture book biographies a chance.  There is more to a great informational text than the number of its pages.

Other reviews at

• The Nonfiction Detectives
• Kirkus
• Waking Brain Cells

Today is Nonfiction Monday, the weekly meme in which bloggers across the kidlitosphere write about nonfiction books for kids on Monday.  This week's host is Wendie Old of Wendie's Wanderings.

The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau - a review

Markel, Michelle. 2012. The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau. Ill. by Amanda Hall. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Review copies provided by LibraryThing and publisher.

I can't imagine many tasks more difficult than painting illustrations for a biography of a famous painter.  In a book for adults, the artist's actual work speaks for itself, but in a picture book for children, the art must not only speak for its creator, but it must help to tell a story.  For The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau, illustrator Amanda Hall eschewed her usual medium in favor of watercolor and acrylics, seeking to more closely mimic Rousseau's style in order to help tell his story.  More than mere imitations, however, she uses Rousseau's style and perspective as the medium to illustrate the time and place in which he lived, his joyous spirit, his famous contemporaries, his wonder at the natural world, and most of all, his complete commitment to his craft - regardless of how it is received by others.  Her illustrations are the perfect complement to Michelle Markel's prose, delivered in a present tense fashion that immediately engages the reader. In language that will speak clearly to children, Markel clearly conveys the transformative power of art,

By now Henri is used to the nasty critics.  He knows his shapes are simpler and flatter than everyone else's, but he thinks that makes them lovely.  He spends all he earns on art supplies, and pays for his bread and coal with landscapes and portraits.  In the afternoon he takes off his frayed smock and gives music lessons.  His home is a shabby little studio, where one pot of stew must last the whole week.  But every morning he wakes up and smiles at his pictures.

Poverty and rejection have never sound so appealing.  Henri Rousseau's life story is an inspiration. A toll collector who did not take up painting until his forties, Rousseau was untrained and largely unrecognized while living, but he was unfazed.  He later became "the first "naïve" artist to be recognized as a great master," and his works now hang in museums around the world.

Author's and Illustrator's Notes complete this stunning picture book biography for older readers.



Enjoy the book's trailer and "Spring," one of Rousseau's famous jungle paintings.

Title:	Surprise!
Painted by:	Henri Julien Rousseau

Title:

Surprise!

Painted by:

Henri Julien Rousseau

Other reviews @

• The Nonfiction Detectives
• Kirkus Reviews

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is at the Jean Little Library.

George Bellows: Painter with a Punch!

Burleigh, Robert. 2012. George Bellows: Painter with a Punch! New York: Abrams.

New York City painter George Bellows (1882-1925) was a member of what  became known as the Ashcan School of painting because

he is among a group of artists who focus on the less romantic parts of the city, like bars, train stations, movie theaters, and alleyways.

He was taught by the well-known, Robert Henri, who encouraged his students to seek out scenes worthy of being painted.

George listens, looks, and learns.  He sees that painting can be a great adventure.  He becomes what Henri calls a "sketch hunter."  When not in class, George wanders the streets, looking for new or different scenes to paint.   Excited, alert, he feels his life is beginning in a completely new way.

Eventually, he becomes best known for his paintings of boxing matches in New York City's "clubs," which were created by saloon owners to side-step the city's boxing ban.

More than a picture book biography, George Bellows: Painter with a Punch!, offers readers an insight into an era of early 20th century New York history that includes industrial growth, socialism, poverty and the immigrant experience as well as the birth of a movement toward realism in American paintings.  Not just a painter, Bellows was also a sketch artist whose work appeared in Harper's Weekly and other publications.  An affable man with a loving wife and family, his story is inspiring and informative.

Burleigh's briskly moving prose is accompanied by photos of Bellows (he was a promising baseball player when young) and more than twenty large spreads of his paintings and sketches.

A helpful section, "Where to See Works by George Bellows," is included, with state-by-state listings. Check first, however, if you plan to look for any of his paintings this summer.  Some, including one from the only New Jersey institution housing his work, are on loan to the National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery of Art is featuring a George Bellows Exhibition from June 10 - October 8, 2012.

This print from Harper's Weekly,
does not appear in the book, but illustrates Bellows'
penchant for depicting the seamier side of
life in New York City.
(image from NYPL digital gallery)

Best for older readers, art teachers, aspiring artists, and those with an interest in the history of New York City and the historical significance of art in boxing.  Though neither a student of art nor a boxing aficionado, I love this book!

Middle-grade teachers that do not permit or make use of picture book nonfiction such as George Bellows: Painter with a Punch! are missing a great resource.

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is at Simply Science.

Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers: The Life of Marc Chagall in Verse - a review

Lewis, J. Patrick and Jane Yolen. 2011. Self Portrait with Seven Fingers: The Life of Marc Chagall in Verse. Mankato, MN: Creative Editions.

Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers pairs the art of Marc Chagall with the talent of writers, Jane Yolen and Patrick L. Lewis, for a result that is illuminating in every sense of the word.

"There's never been anybody since [Pierre-Auguste] Renoir who has the feeling for light that Chagall has," Pablo Picasso once said. "[W]hen [Henri] Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is."  Chagall himself wrote that "there is a single color ... which provides the meaning of life and art.  It is the color of love."

 Such is the praise that Chagall received from his contemporaries and is related in Self-Portrait. Marc Chagall's use of color and light makes his work particularly appealing to children.  Chagall's art is the ingredient from which dreams may be made; and dreams and colors are things that children know intimately. But aside from a child's natural attraction to Chagall's colorful paintings on a purely visceral level, Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen make Chagall's art accessible through words, poetry, history, and examination. 

Paintings or works are presented in roughly chronological order, each chosen to represent a period in Chagall's life.  Each is paired with a poem by Yolen or Lewis, which gives context and definition to both the artwork and Chagall's life.  Opposite "My Fiancee in Black Gloves," Yolen writes, borrowing words from Chagall's first wife, Bella Rosenfeld.

"I was surprised at his eyes,
they were so blue as the sky,
and oblong, like almonds,"
Bella writes, and having written,
falls in love, she so young and rich,
and he but a poor apprentice,
working for a Russian painter
he will one day eclipse,
a sun over Bakst's pale moon.
Did she know how he would rise
like an angel into the sky
on that first day they met,
having tea at Teja's house,
or the next time on the bridge
when he and Teja walked the dog,
and Marc's curly hair spilling
out from under his hat.
Or did she just fall in love
with the surprise of his blue eyes?

Each poem is accompanied by a shaded box, offering facts about each particular period in Chagall's life, including his home, marriage, paintings, colleagues, friends, and the effects of war, politics and circumstances on his very existence and his work. 

Yolen's poetic additions to Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers ("with seven fingers" is a Yiddish phrase meaning "done well" or "adroitly done") are free-form in nature when compared with Lewis' more measured and often rhyming verse, however, all flow seamlessly and complement Chagall's work, sometimes inviting deeper exploration of the painting - offering almost a "seek-and find" challenge to the reader,

 From "I and the Village"

I hailed a milkmaid standing on her head
I saw a cow a-milking in a cow's head
I watched a peasant off to canvas tillage
I met the very universe in a village.
I spied a blossom sprig, a tree of life
I loved Vitebsk in glory and in strife
I scanned a multitude of images, with mirror
I etched a dream and strove to make it clearer
I solved the riddle imagined by a child
I sketched a field, geometry gone wild
I knew myself, white lips, my face in green
I drew the cow's contentment in between.

 Rounding out this exquisite book are photographs of Chagall, footnotes explaining the occassional Yiddish word or unfamiliar name, a table of contents, and source list.

Any art teacher introducing Marc Chagall without the benefit of this book is missing a great opportunity!

Highly recommended.

Today's Nonfiction Monday is at Tales from the Rushmore Kid.  Stop by.

The Kneebone Boy

Potter, Ellen. 2010.  The Kneebone Boy. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

I like books that surprise me. I like books with intriguing cover art. I like quirky books. (The Death-Defying Pepper Roux, The Problem with the Puddles, to name two)

The Kneebone Boy is all three.


The Hardscrabble family is an odd one. The children Otto, Max and Lucia ("you pronounce it Lu-CHEE-a," the narrator reminds us), live with their father, Casper - an artist who makes his rather peculiar living, painting portraits of dethroned royalty. Their mother, Tess Hardscrabble, disappeared years ago under suspicious circumstances. Caspar was immediately suspected by the police; but the neighborhood children believe that Otto, the mute and eldest Hardscrabble child, murdered his mother with the scarf that he wears always around his neck. The outcast children are frequently left in the care of a neighbor with an unsightly neck boil, while their father travels the globe to immortalize down-on-their-luck princesses, sultans and baronesses.

But this trip is different. Their father has failed to make the proper arrangements and the children find themselves on an adventure - a frightening, exciting, exhilarating adventure!

All in all they were in that gorgeous state of mind in which they felt free and unafraid and sharply aware of how large and exciting the world was.
     In other words, it hadn't gotten dark outside yet.

The Kneebone Boy is narrated in the third person by one of the three Hardscrabble children, with frequent asides and commentary on the nature of storytelling and writing. The narrator prefers to keep her identity a secret, insisting that the story belongs to all of them, but it soon becomes plain which of the children is narrating the story, as she gives away a clue in the title of the very first chapter,

In which we meet the Hardscrabbles, unearth a triceratops bone, and begin to like Lucia even more.

After some trouble in London, they arrive in Snoring-by-the-Sea and take up temporary residence at their Great-Aunt Haddie's castle folly. The quite young Great-Aunt Haddie (do the math, it's possible) is an adventure unto herself, and in her curious care (which involves dungeons and peanut butter and jelly), the siblings begin to imagine that they can find their mother, discover a secret passageway through the castle folly, and rescue a sultan. Perhaps they can, or perhaps they are on a completely different adventure - one about which neither they, nor the reader, knows anything!

Though told through the lens of Lucia's mind, The Kneebone Boy displays all facets of the Hardscrabble children's personalities. Max may be a know-it-all who isn't fond of animals, but he is also a companionable and loving brother. Lucia sometimes resents Max's bossiness and feels herself to be Otto's protector, but she knows when to defer to Max's superior intellect and wonders if she may need Otto as much as Otto needs her. And though fearful of many things, she is more than capable of overcoming her fears when the need arises. Otto, who is mute and communicates with his hands, also has more to him than his description and appearance might suggest. Though speechless, Otto knows and understands more than his siblings think.

Dark and quirky, Otto and the rest of the Hardscrabble family will draw the reader into this witty and mysterious adventure with a completely unexpected and thought-provoking conclusion.

A discussion guide for The Kneebone Boy from the publisher.

Read an excerpt here.

More reviews @
Kids Lit
A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy

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Flotsam, but no jetsam in Long Branch

New Jersey native, David Wiesner, was talking Tuesday (and Flotsam and Free Fall) on Tuesday at the New Jersey Library Association Conference in Long Branch, New Jersey.

David Wiesner, signing books at NJLA

Librarians who attended the afternoon Children's Services Section program featuring illustrator, David Wiesner, were treated to a glimpse of the painstaking process of creating award-winning wordless picture books. Personable and humble, he detailed his long-standing love of art, comic books and painting - even sharing his Kindergarten artwork.
Then, he took the appreciative crowd on a step-by-step journey from idea to sketch, to layout, to revision, to painting, to finished product.  His presentation was peppered with humor as well.  Want to know why frogs fly?  So do a lot of other people, but David Wiesner doesn't really care why they fly.  In his mind, they just do.  Wonder why there are pigs in Free Fall? If something tells him to add a few pigs, he doesn't question it, he simply adds a few pigs! He also called attention to little known details.  Many of the children in Flotsam are based on his family members and friends; others from Google Images. Ever notice the froggy clouds in Tuesday? The reflection of the camera in  Flotsam's fish eye cover? Wiesner's attention to detail knows no bounds.

Spend some time reacquainting yourself and your young readers with the imaginative worlds of David Wiesner's picture book collection. 

And keep an eye out for his new book coming out in the fall - Art and Max.  (And no, they're not pigs; they're lizards)

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The Usborne Art Treasury

Dickens, Rosie. 2007. The Usborne Art Treasury. Tulsa, OK: EDC.

ISBN: 978079451452-5

Featuring a famous work by each of 22 different artists, this book is a fantastic resource for summer reading, art-themed projects! The artists include van Gogh, Monet, Degas and others, including an unknown African mask artist. Featured styles include paintings, collage art, woodblock prints, sculptures, masks and more. Each work of art is featured in a photo and accompanied by a description of the piece, biographical information on the artist, technical information about the piece, and a great project to do in the artist's style using simple items like cotton balls, plastic forks, etc. I will be using this book a LOT!