by Susan Vande Griek ; illustrated by Pascal Milelli ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2016
A restrained, lyrical introduction to a nature artist whose work and reputation justify the exposure to young viewers south...
Inspired by a historical encounter, a child remembers Canadian artist Tom Thomson teaching her to paint during a summer sojourn at her father’s lakeside home.
As in the creative team’s The Art Room (2002), a similar tribute to Canadian artist Emily Carr, Vande Griek’s spare, poetic narrative links a series of harmonious scenes done in strongly brushed strokes of greens, blues, and golds. Arriving at the lakeside house one afternoon in a canoe filled with “fishing gear, / camping gear, / painting gear,” Tom makes mulligatawny stew over a campfire and then, as days pass, ventures out with the young observer to paint flowers and boats, trees, and moonlight on water. All the while, as a sort of refrain, the west wind blows “gentle” or “fresh,” “light” or “wild,” and when at last it blows “away” with July’s passage, the young man too departs. Milelli incorporates inexact but evocative versions of some of Thomson’s paintings into his outdoorsy illustrations, and Vande Griek closes with a biographical note enlarging on the 1914 visit and the painter’s prominent place in the history of Canadian art.
A restrained, lyrical introduction to a nature artist whose work and reputation justify the exposure to young viewers south of the border. (resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55498-701-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
Share your opinion of this book
More by Susan Vande Griek
BOOK REVIEW
by Susan Vande Griek ; illustrated by Mark Hoffmann
BOOK REVIEW
by Susan Vande Griek ; illustrated by Ian Wallace
BOOK REVIEW
by Susan Vande Griek & illustrated by Karen Reczuch
by Linda Little ; illustrated by Óscar T. Pérez ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2015
Stylized and idealized but with some potential as a discussion starter.
A young traveler discovers a world of wonders hidden in a seemingly ordinary word.
Though assured by his industrious parents that there is nothing beyond their rural cottage but “work and more work,” Tom sets out to see for himself. Odd jobs eventually lead him to sail off to encounter tea in China, indigo in a busy Indian marketplace and cinnamon in tropical Ceylon. Years later he returns to tell his parents that all over the world “people are busy making beautiful things.” “I told you so,” responds his mother. “Wherever you go—just work and more work.” The narrative is a bare recitation of events, but in her afterword, Little explains that she visualizes Tom as starting out near Liverpool around 1840, then goes on to describe in some detail his parents’ occupations and how tea, indigo and cinnamon were harvested and prepared for export at that time. Showing technical dazzle but a fussy sensibility, Pérez renders foliage, architectural features and period dress in precise, superfine detail but gives human figures oversized heads, studied gestures, and tiny hands and feet. Moreover, though Tom is supposedly gone long enough to become “a young man and quite different from the boy who had left,” in the illustrations he ages not at all, greeting his parents wearing the same clothes he set out in.
Stylized and idealized but with some potential as a discussion starter. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55498-383-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
Share your opinion of this book
by Joe Lillington ; illustrated by Joe Lillington ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 11, 2015
A skimpy alternative to Adrian Lister and Martin Ursell’s Ice Age Tracker’s Guide (2010).
A small bison meets some ice age megafauna in this prehistoric ramble.
Assuring his mom that “I’m big now. I’m not scared!” little Toby scampers off. He collides with a grumpy woolly rhinoceros, introduces himself to a Megatherium, wonders at a woolly mammoth’s tusks, and sidles anxiously past a handful of other Pleistocene creatures—including a group of fur-clad humans—before gamboling back to safety. Along with exchanged greetings, each encounter comes with a side box of descriptive facts and comments, plus a small image of the animal posed next to a human (in modern dress) for comparison. Young viewers will marvel at the succession of massive ruminants and predators, which Lillington renders in watercolors with reasonable accuracy, if anthropomorphic facial expressions. He offers measurements in metric units only (except for humans, whose weight is opaquely designated “average”). Rather anticlimactically, he caps his gallery with a perfunctory, unillustrated list of “some other amazing ice age animals that Toby didn’t get to meet!”
A skimpy alternative to Adrian Lister and Martin Ursell’s Ice Age Tracker’s Guide (2010). (Informational picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-909263-58-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Share your opinion of this book
More by Iris Volant
BOOK REVIEW
by Iris Volant ; illustrated by Joe Lillington
BOOK REVIEW
by Caroline Starr Rose ; illustrated by Joe Lillington
BOOK REVIEW
by Joe Lillington ; illustrated by Joe Lillington
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.