GRANDMA MOSES

Veteran picture-book biographer Wallner has turned her hand to the life and work of the great 20th-century American Primitive painter Anna Mary Robertson, a.k.a. Grandma Moses. Employing homespun illustrations and straightforward, homey, narrative style, Wallner takes youngsters back to the artist’s 19th-century New England roots. She limns the life spent on family farms and as a widow trying to make ends meet. Moses began embroidering “worsted pictures,” preferring images and scenes from her childhood in New York and New England. When rheumatism pained, she turned to paints. The thrifty artist used whatever paints and supports on hand—including glitter in her snow scenes. Wallner recreated Moses’s art here and appends one page of backmatter to round out the content. Youngsters who want to actually see Moses’s own paintings will prefer W. Nikola-Lisa’s The Year with Grandma Moses (2000). Nevertheless, young readers will find this a simple introduction to a genuine American character. A fresh-faced addition to young biography shelves and a sturdy choice for Women’s History Month. (Picture book/biography. 4-8)