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PAUL CÉZANNE

A PAINTER’S JOURNEY

Both biography and art criticism, this exploration of Cézanne features well-reproduced paintings, mostly excellent design and text that’s partly savvy and partly incomplete. The biographical aspect shows an appropriately un-romanticized Cézanne, crotchety and often unappreciated by critics. Burleigh’s art analysis shines when he points out the paintings’ brush strokes or compares a Cézanne piece to another artist’s rendition or a historical photo of the same scene. He astutely explains Cézanne’s groundbreaking use of several perspectives within one painting. However, Burleigh’s analysis doesn’t address Cézanne’s signature technique of pulling his subject matter to the front of the painting (flattening the scene and minimizing depth) and doesn’t give the artist enough credit for freeing subject matter from representationalism, both of which contributed invaluably to the birth of abstraction. But despite this, young art fans will be drawn to the beautiful paintings and fascinated by how Cézanne tinkers with perspective. An attractive, worthy contribution. (glossary, bibliography, author’s note) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-8109-5784-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2006

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ALL BY HERSELF

POEMS

Prose poems celebrate the feats of young heroines, some of them famous, and some not as well-known. Paul (Hello Toes! Hello Feet!, 1998, etc.) recounts moments in the lives of women such as Rachel Carson, Amelia Earhart, and Wilma Rudolph; these moments don’t necessarily reflect what made them famous as much as they are pivotal events in their youth that influenced the direction of their lives. For Earhart, it was sliding down the roof of the tool shed in a home-made roller coaster: “It’s like flying!” For Rudolph, it was the struggle to learn to walk without her foot brace. Other women, such as Violet Sheehy, who rescued her family from a fire in Hinckley, Minnesota, or Harriet Hanson, a union supporter in the fabric mills of Massachusetts, are celebrated for their brave decisions made under extreme duress. Steirnagle’s sweeping paintings powerfully exude the strength of character exhibited by these young women. A commemorative book, that honors both quiet and noisy acts of heroism. (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-15-201477-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

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GREETINGS FROM ANTARCTICA

Wheeler offers a scrapbook-style travelogue of her seven-month stint on the world’s coldest continent. Letters to her...

            In an eye-opening companion to such works as Jennifer Armstrong’s Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World (1999) and Elizabeth Cody Kimmel’s Ice Story (p.  66) on Shackleton, readers get a contemporary look at Antarctica.

            Wheeler offers a scrapbook-style travelogue of her seven-month stint on the world’s coldest continent.  Letters to her godson, Daniel, describe a harsh environment so cold that dental fillings fall out.  Double-page spreads dotted with full-color snapshots form short chapters on the icy region, suiting up, the difficulties of everyday existence, food and drink, shelter, transportation, entertainment, and wildlife.  The last third of the volume is devoted to current scientific pursuits as well as an overview of famous expeditions to the nearly uninhabitable “bottom of the planet.”  The cheery photographs – most by the author – show her dwarfed by the Barne glacier, posing with Emperor penguins, even building an igloo.  While the chatty letters highlight personal details of the trip, boxed inserts provide background information.  Key dates in Antarctic history complete this accessible profile, ideal as entry into units on the region.  (maps, charts, diagrams, further reading, index)  (Nonfiction.  8-12)

Pub Date: July 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-87226-295-2

Page Count: 44

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1999

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