CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 3, 2011
"Sophisticated, inventive art invites close viewings for patient readers in this unusual family story. (foreword, time line, author's note) (Picture book/memoir. 7-12) "
Flashes of multi-media brilliance illuminate this darkly colored, leisurely paced memoir of childhood in Shanghai.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 1, 2011
"Aesthetically superb; this will fascinate comics readers and budding artists while creating new Say fans. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 10 & up)"
Exquisite drawings, paintings, comics and photographs balance each other perfectly as they illustrate Say's childhood path to becoming an artist.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: July 19, 2011
"Neither a story with a plot nor a full-blown memoir, this brief look at a town suspended in time resonates with happiness and could spark some children to reflect on their own idyllic summers in a new way. (map, author's note) (Picture book/memoir. 7-10)"
Intriguing pictures full of small details bring alive the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and textures of a small Sardinian town in the 1950s.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: July 1, 2009
"This charming remembrance makes a famous artist real to both kids and art lovers alike. (Picture book/memoir. 4-8)"
Readers will know they're in for a treat when they glimpse the book cover: a phalanx of near-identical Russian Blue cats, with one particularly adorable specimen winking at viewers from under a signature white Warhol-esque fright wig.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: March 4, 2008
"Signature watercolor illustrations contrast the stark misery of refugee life with the boundless joys of the imagination. (Picture book. 4-8)"
CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 1, 2002
"Fans of Tomie DePaola's ongoing autobiography, or Patricia Polacco's sentiment-steeped reminiscences, will enjoy this glimpse of a decidedly unconventional childhood sojourn. (author's note) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)"
Potter (Brave Little Seamstress, p. 576, etc.) draws from family history for her first solo turn, recalling a tour of Italy that her puppeteering family undertook when she was seven.
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ADULT
Released: Sept. 1, 1999
"Sayles's softly colored illustrations, by turns wistful and vibrant, capture the times and the tone as a young child finds her place in her parents' new country. (Picture book. 5-9)"
Set in El Paso, Texas, in the 1920s, this moving family memoir focuses on Mora's mother as a child, who participated in her own way in a May Day parade.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: June 30, 1996
"In contrast to the excellent text, the pictures—though pleasant in every way—are almost irrelevant; Aliki (My Visit to the Aquarium, 1993, etc.) paints what has already been amply evoked in the magic of her words. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)"
This warm and accessible memoir of Aliki's childhood days at the beach with her extended family is a tone poem that vividly reflects a wealth of detail.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 23, 1992
"Again, Stevenson assembles quintessential bits of daily life, evoking an entire era along with his particular experience of it. (Autobiography/Picture book. 5-9)"
Another vignette from the popular illustrator's boyhood: 1942-45, while his brother was in the navy.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 23, 1991
"A grand alternative to the plethora of predictable books about white kids visiting grandparents on stereotypical family farms. (Picture book. 4-8)"
Beginning with the ride on the old Southern Railway car ("colored" says the sign on the wall), the sights, sounds, and warm delights of a summer visit to Grandma in Crews's own childhood—a three-day trip from somewhere up north.
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