An ebullient homage to an innovative, enduring artist.
The award-winning authors follow glass artist Dale Chihuly from his Pacific Northwest roots through world-renowned accomplishments in color, form, and technique.
Born in Tacoma, Washington, Chihuly lost his older brother and father as a teen and forged a close bond with his supportive mother. Chihuly enrolled in college at his mother’s urging, working to pay his way. Courses in weaving, architecture, and design played counterpoint to frat-house partying. With his mother’s blessing, Dale took time off to travel abroad. On an Israeli kibbutz he matured, returning home to finish school. Study at the University of Wisconsin, the Rhode Island School of Design, and a glass-blowing factory in Venice deepened skills and fostered a lifelong interest in innovative, team-based approaches; natural, organic forms; and the elastic properties of molten glass. In the 1970s, Chihuly co-founded the influential Pilchuck Glass School as his fame grew. After a car crash in England, he lost sight in one eye and adopted his iconic black eyepatch. In narrative details and dozens of well-chosen photographs, Greenberg and Jordan convey the kinetic techniques of glass blowing. Final chapters focus on Chihuly’s artistic vision, technical boundary-pushing, and five decades of richly exuberant work. Notably, the authors mention Chihuly’s adaptations to bipolar disorder. Among more typical information, the backmatter includes a partial list of Chihuly’s collaborators and another of museums and galleries where readers might find his work.
An ebullient homage to an innovative, enduring artist. (source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 8-14)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3681-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy.
Through the author’s own childhood diary entries, a seventh grader details her inner life before and after 9/11.
Alyssa’s diary entries start in September 2000, in the first week of her seventh grade year. She’s 11 and dealing with typical preteen concerns—popularity and anxiety about grades—along with other things more particular to her own life. She’s shuffling between Queens and Manhattan to share time between her divorced parents and struggling with thick facial hair and classmates who make her feel like she’s “not a whole person” due to her mixed White and Puerto Rican heritage. Alyssa is endlessly earnest and awkward as she works up the courage to talk to her crush, Alejandro; gushes about her dreams of becoming a shoe designer; and tries to solve her burgeoning unibrow problem. The diaries also have a darker side, as a sense of impending doom builds as the entries approach 9/11, especially because Alyssa’s father works in finance in the World Trade Center. As a number of the diary entries are taken directly from the author’s originals, they effortlessly capture the loud, confusing feelings middle school brings out. The artwork, in its muted but effective periwinkle tones, lends a satisfying layer to the diary’s accessible and delightful format.
An authentic and moving time capsule of middle school angst, trauma, and joy. (author's note) (Graphic memoir. 8-13)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-77427-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
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