A passionate ode to a pioneering female artist whose influence endures and inspires.
An artist finds kinship in the life and work of American painter Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944).
A light-skinned young child who comes across Florine’s self-portrait in a museum is startled to discover that the artist resembles her. The child explores the parallels between their lives as artistic Jewish girls and ultimately commits to embracing Florine’s vibrant spirit. If she could throw a party for Florine, she would serve “blue pancakes,” and the two would “paint and dance and write poetry!” Stepping outside, the child adopts Florine’s perspective: “The world around me is full of color and full of surprise.” Nayberg succinctly shares the usual biographical details, including important dates, family, training—information that can be supplemented by her comprehensive author’s note. But it’s the author’s obvious reverence for Florine that gives this retrospective an unexpected intimacy. Lyrical lines describe Florine’s art, with its “skinny cats’’ and “tilted buildings growing like trees,” as well as her glamorous New York City life of poetry and parties (“lounging around in white silk pants!” with the likes of Marcel Duchamp). Illustrated in dynamic, mostly primary colors that mirror Florine’s customary palettes, Nayberg’s images of oversize flowers, flying people, and jazz-filled salons are ebullient, flamboyant even. Florine’s four-part Cathedrals of New York series on the endpapers, plus a reproduced self-portrait in the backmatter, gives readers an excellent sense of her work.
A passionate ode to a pioneering female artist whose influence endures and inspires. (Informational picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780823454105
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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