by Mary Zisk illustrated by Mary Zisk ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2018
A highly entertaining and thoughtful tale.
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In Zisk’s (The Best Single Mom in the World, 2001) middle-grade novel, a 12-year-old New Jersey girl in 1965 defies sexist stereotypes—and her father—to take art lessons.
Four years ago, back in third grade, Rosella Maria Rinaldi’s art teacher dubbed her “a regular little Rembrandt,” and kids have called her “Remmy” ever since. The teacher recommended that Remmy keep “the spark of an artist” alive, so the tween resolves that her upcoming year in seventh grade will be “The Year of My Spark.” Dampening her fire, though, is her father, who insists that “No daughter of mine will ever become an artist,” with an accompanying “Great Depression Speech.” In addition, Remmy finds that her History of Art book doesn’t have a single female artist in it. Nevertheless, she finds work to pay for secret art lessons. In the months leading up to an art contest that Remmy hopes to win, her personal relationships have ups and downs. Her best friend, Debbie, a fellow Beatlemaniac, starts hanging out with another girl in the French club, often leaving Remmy (who doesn’t speak French) out of their conversations; later, Remmy draws a portrait of Debbie that causes trouble. Bill Appleton, a former childhood friend, has sexist notions (“You know, all great artists are men”), but he also suffers because of gendered expectations, as he’d rather make art than play sports. This revelation brings him and Remmy closer together. She also learns more about her father’s past and what it was that’s made him so dead-set against art as a career. Remmy’s artistic efforts bring mixed results, but she sticks to her resolution. The book includes an author’s note that features a handful of her personal photos from the 1960s (depicting a memorable event that mirrors an episode in the book), a timeline of the women’s movement from the 1960s to the ’80s, and an appendix that lists 23 artists mentioned in the text, featuring short biographies and four photos. Zisk illustrates the story with Remmy’s lively, expressive line drawings, which show that Remmy does have some skill; at the same time, they are believably the work of a talented 12-year-old. Remmy expresses delight in color and pays attention to visuals throughout the narrative, which helps to establish her as a budding artist: “I notice everything—diamonds of dew on leaves, the changing color of twilight clouds, yellow snow in the shape of Florida.” Remmy’s painting classes, too, provide readers with an authentic sense of what the education of a young painter is like: “composition, proportion, mixing colors (or tones of gray, in my case), brush strokes, shadows, highlights.” Also authentic, and perhaps surprising to many young readers today, is the depiction of the struggle of women artists to gain recognition. H.W. Janson’s History of Art is a real book, and Zisk correctly notes that it didn’t include any women until the 1987 edition. Remmy’s amusing voice, decency, and ambition make her an appealing character, as well.
A highly entertaining and thoughtful tale.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73248-770-3
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Cabin Studio Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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