Cast in the spirit of her evocative picture-book text for First Painter (illustrated by Rocco Baviera, 2000), veteran novelist and nonfiction writer Lasky offers an apt, poetic tribute to an American classic. Set in O’Keeffe’s legendary retreat, Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiú, N.M., this brief introduction presents a representative day in the later life of the 20th-century painter. Meditative, atmospheric and quietly affecting paintings by the Hans Christian Andersen Award–nominated Israeli painter Eitan consistently evoke O’Keeffe’s singular, curvilinear style and desert-inflected palette. Both author and illustrator employ a light yet meaning-rich touch; the text is spare, the accompanying images (some almost like playful spot art) evoke this unique American landscape and the intense inner life and rooted sensibility of this astounding artist. The book’s quotidian approach is a clear choice—the author wants readers to know this woman through the simple accretion of daily details rather than through an ambitious, fact-driven narrative. Wonderfully understated, this is, on balance, a handsome and appealing complement to Jeanette Winter’s more fact-based My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait (1998) or Rachel Rodriguez and Julie Paschkis’s more inclusive Through Georgia’s Eyes (2006). Includes a brief two-page biographical note with a reproduction of Rust Red Hills, ca. 1930. (author’s note, selected bibliography, sources) (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-374-32529-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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