An ebullient homage to an innovative, enduring artist.
The award-winning authors follow glass artist Dale Chihuly from his Pacific Northwest roots through world-renowned accomplishments in color, form, and technique.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, Chihuly lost his older brother and father as a teen and forged a close bond with his supportive mother. Chihuly enrolled in college at his mother’s urging, working to pay his way. Courses in weaving, architecture, and design played counterpoint to frat-house partying. With his mother’s blessing, Dale took time off to travel abroad. On an Israeli kibbutz he matured, returning home to finish school. Study at the University of Wisconsin, the Rhode Island School of Design, and a glass-blowing factory in Venice deepened skills and fostered a lifelong interest in innovative, team-based approaches; natural, organic forms; and the elastic properties of molten glass. In the 1970s, Chihuly co-founded the influential Pilchuck Glass School as his fame grew. After a car crash in England, he lost sight in one eye and adopted his iconic black eyepatch. In narrative details and dozens of well-chosen photographs, Greenberg and Jordan convey the kinetic techniques of glass blowing. Final chapters focus on Chihuly’s artistic vision, technical boundary-pushing, and five decades of richly exuberant work. Notably, the authors mention Chihuly’s adaptations to bipolar disorder. Among more typical information, the backmatter includes a partial list of Chihuly’s collaborators and another of museums and galleries where readers might find his work.
An ebullient homage to an innovative, enduring artist. (source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 8-14)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3681-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy.
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.
Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77427-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
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