ART FROM HER HEART

Hunter started painting on scraps and gourds at age 50, using paints left by artists who frequented the Louisiana plantation where she worked. She depicted what she saw around her, cementing her legacy as a chronicler of soon-to-disappear plantation life when she became the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at major museum. Evans’s images echo Hunter’s naïve style, his bright palette paying homage to Hunter’s own vivid colors. Collage elements on highly textured backgrounds incorporate reproductions of her work. While the story of Hunter’s success as an untrained artist will inspire students, they will not be as impressed with Whitehead’s narrative. Too many sentence fragments and backward shifts recalling the incidents that inspired Hunter’s work detract from the narrative flow. A concluding author’s note for adults provides the background necessary to fully understand Hunter’s life. Although not outstanding, it is undeniably useful as the only picture-book biography of the self-taught Hunter, who died in 1988 at the age of 101. (thumbnail reproductions, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-9)