Simply marvelous.
An exploration of Joan Mitchell’s passionate, color-drenched, large-scale abstract paintings.
Focusing on 21 paintings that Mitchell completed in 1983 and 1984, inspired by France’s Grande Vallée, Rogers notes that the U.S.-born Mitchell never visited the scenic valley, though she lived in France. It was a beloved childhood place for the painter’s dear friend Gisèle Barreau. “Joan envisions the valley….She senses it, smells it, hears, it, feels it.” She “uses oil paint and canvas to create this valley of her mind.” Rogers beautifully conveys the artist’s intentions in ways young readers will understand: By abstracting nature, Mitchell captures her feelings about it. On the monumental size and multiplicity of Mitchell’s works, Rogers writes: “One canvas is not big enough to contain her mind’s picture.” Innerst’s illustrations are fittingly exuberant, rendering Mitchell in grayscale against expressionistic brush strokes and drips in warm yellows, blues, deep greens, and pinks. Readers see multiple images of the artist on one spread, her black bob, large eyeglasses, and elongated arms embodying her energy and drive. Mitchell’s black ladder is sometimes rickety looking, sometimes paint-covered: a partner in her up-and-down painter’s dance. Innerst’s paintings of paintings sometimes suggest a specific work from the period, such as La Grande Vallée II (Amaryllis). The penultimate spread celebrates the extraordinary series in its gallery opening: “Joan is ready to share her valley with the world.” In the last, two kids contemplate an enormous painting from “La Grande Vallée.”
Simply marvelous. (author’s note, childhood poem by Mitchell, timeline, selected museums for viewing Mitchell’s work, selected bibliography, photographs, picture credits) (Picture-book biography. 6-10)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781662680373
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering.
An honestly told biography of an important politician whose name every American should know.
Published while the United States has its first African-American president, this story of John Roy Lynch, the first African-American speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, lays bare the long and arduous path black Americans have walked to obtain equality. The title’s first three words—“The Amazing Age”—emphasize how many more freedoms African-Americans had during Reconstruction than for decades afterward. Barton and Tate do not shy away from honest depictions of slavery, floggings, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, or the various means of intimidation that whites employed to prevent blacks from voting and living lives equal to those of whites. Like President Barack Obama, Lynch was of biracial descent; born to an enslaved mother and an Irish father, he did not know hard labor until his slave mistress asked him a question that he answered honestly. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, Lynch had a long and varied career that points to his resilience and perseverance. Tate’s bright watercolor illustrations often belie the harshness of what takes place within them; though this sometimes creates a visual conflict, it may also make the book more palatable for young readers unaware of the violence African-Americans have suffered than fully graphic images would. A historical note, timeline, author’s and illustrator’s notes, bibliography and map are appended.
A picture book worth reading about a historical figure worth remembering. (Picture book biography. 7-10)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5379-0
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
An emotional entry point to a larger, necessary discussion on this complex and difficult subject.
The paths of four migrant children from different Central American countries cross as they enter Mexico, and together they continue their journey to the United States.
Though their reasons for undertaking the perilous journey are different, their hopes are not: They all hope for asylum in the U.S. Ten-year-old Alessandra, from Guatemala, hopes to reunite with her mother, who left four years ago. Thirteen-year-old Laura and her 7-year-old brother, Nando, from El Salvador, are going to live with relatives in the U.S. And 14-year-old Rodrigo, from Honduras, will try to join his parents in Nebraska rather than join a local gang. Along the way they encounter danger, hunger, kindness from strangers, and, most importantly, the strength of friendship with one another. Through the four children, the book provides but the barest glimpse into the reasons, hopes, and dreams of the thousands of unaccompanied minors that arrive at the U.S.–Mexico border every year. Artist Guevara has added Central American folk art–influenced details to her illustrations, giving depth to the artwork. These embellishments appear as line drawings superimposed on the watercolor scenes. The backmatter explains the reasons for the book, helping to place it within the larger context of ongoing projects at Baylor University related to the migration crisis in Central America.
An emotional entry point to a larger, necessary discussion on this complex and difficult subject. (Picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64442-008-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Six Foot Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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