A young ballerina excited about the evening’s upcoming performance discovers that she and Monsieur Degas, at work in the rehearsal studio on The Dance Class, have switched bags. He has her tutu and she has his paints. Frantically, she pursues him through Caillebotte’s Paris Street, Rainy Day, past Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines and Renoir’s Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre. She enters a studio where Cassatt is at work on Little Girl in a Blue Armchair and returns in triumph to star in Degas’s Ballet: L’Étoile. Readers will enjoy a charming study of French Impressionism as the dancer is directed from one great painter to the next. Montanari melds images of the artists at work on their canvases with a young dancer moving and posing beautifully. The slightly elongated figures combined with unusual perspectives and a pastel palette of yellows, browns, blues and pinks evoke the time and set the tone. Along the way, there are nuggets of information about the artists’ techniques. A lovely book to share with budding artists and families off to visit an art museum or Paris. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8109-3878-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
If Holabird can continue to come up with empathic roles for Angelina, the series should have a devoted following.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1984
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6961-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1984
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bird-finding made easy and attractive.
A veteran birder invites young readers to look for the birds around them.
“There are lots of ways to find a bird. / That’s the wonderful thing about birds.” Ward, author of many nature titles including Mama Dug a Little Den, illustrated by Steve Jenkins (2018), offers good suggestions for bird-finding at any age. Move slowly and quietly. Try to blend in. Look up, down, and also straight ahead. And, finally, “the best way to find a bird”: close your eyes and listen. Ward makes clear why birds are where they are. Some are feeding or nesting on the ground; some are snacking or splashing in the water; some are high in the sky; others perch on wires or feed in your own backyard. Sudyka’s opaque watercolors are as engaging as the text. A smiling black child and a shorter child with pale skin and straight, black pigtails discover birds in a variety of environments. Hand-lettered labels identify the many birds shown. Two spreads make a puzzle: Three birds blend into a tree’s bark so well they can barely be seen; a page turn shows them close-up and labeled. The birds might not realistically all be found in the same parts of this country or at the same time, but they are reasonably common (except on the spread showing five extinct birds) and clearly identifiable in these illustrations. An afterword for older readers or caregivers provides good suggestions and further resources.
Bird-finding made easy and attractive. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6705-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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