You’ll be shouting “Bravo!”
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. (And thanks to the Herculean efforts of Isaac Stern.)
Carnegie Hall, the New York monument to music and musical education that was constructed by Andrew Carnegie, has hosted a range of performers and speakers, from singer Marian Anderson to physicist Albert Einstein. But it’s thanks to the unrelenting work of violinist Isaac Stern that Carnegie Hall still exists. In 1960, New York City planner Robert Moses intended to demolish the hall in his quest to redesign and modernize Manhattan. Protesters, musicians, and concerned citizens gathered to defend the historic building, but nothing changed. Still, Stern remained steadfast in his desire to raise both awareness and funds to ensure the hall’s survival—all of which ultimately paid off. The book documents this history while at the same time acknowledging the importance of musical education and Carnegie Hall’s modern role in that pursuit. The digital illustrations enhance the text perfectly, capturing the grandeur of performances and the diversity of New York and its citizens. The added author’s note, information on Carnegie Hall and Stern, timeline, and sources provide additional information, making the book an excellent reference for reports or to encourage curious readers to learn more. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
You’ll be shouting “Bravo!” (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-063-04527-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
Buoyantly told, rich in insights into the creative process as well as the crafts of writing, illustrating, and storytelling.
How a masterpiece was cooked up, with Green Eggs and Ham for dessert.
Breaking occasionally into verse herself—“Dr. Seuss, we insist! / Won’t you please write a book that no kid can resist? / P.S. Use the words on this No-Nonsense List”—Sierra explains how the author of Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose and other favorites put aside his love of made-up words for a set, 236-item vocabulary, spun a “whiz-bang story” out of the elemental rhyme of “cat” with “hat,” and after work followed by inspiration followed by more work released a classic. Nor did “Ted” stop there; he went on to pen and publish a whole line of early readers and also answered Bennett Cerf’s challenge to produce a tale using only 50 different words (“Could he? Would he?”) with another game-changer. Hawkes opens with an integrated 1954 street scene (“a great year to be a kid, unless you were trying to learn how to read”) and closes with hat tips from the Cat and Sam-I-Am. In between he shows the then–clean-shaven Geisel (sometimes in “outlandish” hats of his own) hard at work surrounded by fantastical creatures drawn in Seussian cartoon style and placed against more-realistic, painterly scenes. He plays his typewriter like a magisterial pipe organist in one picture and bears that distinctive elfin grin throughout. Notes from Sierra, Hawkes, and the master himself bring up the rear.
Buoyantly told, rich in insights into the creative process as well as the crafts of writing, illustrating, and storytelling. (book list) (Picture book/biography. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-51097-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Apart from the peculiar posthumous narration, a useful addition to the artist-biography shelf.
This Spanish import describes well-known events in van Gogh’s career
Readers first see him as a child and then as an assistant in his uncle’s art dealership, followed by a brief spell as a minister, during which he witnessed and drew mining families living in terrible poverty. Constantly dogged by disapproval and humiliation in the provincial towns, the painter moved to Paris. Here he was exposed to contemporary art movements that were central to the evolution of his distinctive style. His removal to the Arles countryside, the inspiration for many of his most famous works; his complicated friendship with Gauguin; and his eventual descent into madness and suicide are described and illustrated with García’s soft watercolor illustrations and a few reproductions. Sidebars provide background information about art movements, places, and people that influenced van Gogh. The entire book, including the concluding timeline, is in the first person. This is potentially confusing for children who have a limited understanding of chronology. Some of the statements seem particularly jarring owing to this choice of narrative voice. The timeline states: “in a moment of despair, [I] shot myself in the chest. Two days later, I died.” It will be obvious to most readers that he could not be writing when dead, and this adds a layer of absurdity that derails the otherwise factual tone.
Apart from the peculiar posthumous narration, a useful addition to the artist-biography shelf. (list of paintings, websites) (Biography. 8-10)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-59572-770-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Star Bright
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
