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MISS ETTA AND DR. CLARIBEL

Name: MISS ETTA AND DR. CLARIBEL
Author: Susan Fillion
ISBN: 978-1-56792-434-3

BRINGING MATISSE TO AMERICA

by Susan Fillion & illustrated by Susan Fillion ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2011

This appealing work stands as both a portrait of two unconventional women and a celebration of the possibilities of arts...

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An affectionate, lively examination of the reciprocal relationship between a great artist and two great art lovers.

Etta and Claribel Cone, unmarried sisters from a wealthy Baltimore family, "were born around the time of the Civil War" and became energetic, discerning collectors of modern art, particularly that of Henri Matisse. Claribel Cone was a doctor; Etta Cone managed her parents' household. Both traveled extensively in Europe and, around the turn of the 20th century, fell in with Leo and Gertrude Stein. Informed by Leo's adventuresome sense of aesthetics as well as their own daring tastes, they embraced the works of the young Matisse in 1905 and enthusiastically befriended him. Fillion sketches her characters neatly and swiftly, following the women over the next decades as they amassed what became one of the most significant American collections of modern European art. Though this is not a beginner’s text, she folds in economical explanations of early-20th-century European art, cogently contextualizing Matisse and his contemporaries. Their account is lavishly illustrated in full color by reproductions from the Cone Collection at the Baltimore Museum of Art and Matisse-inflected paintings by the author, who drew extensively on the Cone archive that is also housed at the museum.

This appealing work stands as both a portrait of two unconventional women and a celebration of the possibilities of arts patronage. (author/illustrator's note, bibliography, sources) (Biography. 10-14)

Pub Date: July 25, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-56792-434-3

Page Count: 92

Publisher: Godine

Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
PIZZA IN PIENZA
by Susan Fillion illustrated by Susan Fillion

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SKYWALKERS

MOHAWKS ON THE HIGH STEEL

by David Weitzman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2010

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Weaving together architectural, engineering and Native American history, Weitzman tells the fascinating story of how Mohawk Indian ironworkers helped construct the sprawling bridges and towering skyscrapers that dominate our urban landscape. The book begins with a brief but informative history of the Kanien'kéhaka—People of the Flint. Leaders in establishing the League of the Iroquois, a confederation of Indian nations in the New York region, Mohawks had a longstanding reputation for their sense of tight-knit community, attraction to danger and love for physical challenge, qualities that served them well when hired in the late 1800s to do the most arduous work in railroad and bridge construction. With the advent of the skyscraper, Mohawks possessing agility that seemed gravity-defying worked hundreds of feet above the ground. They were not immune to tragedy, and the author discusses in detail the collapse of the Québec Bridge that killed 31 Mohawk workers. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs that capture the daring spirit of these heroic workers, the concise, captivating account offers great insight into the little-known but considerable role Native Americans played in our architectural and engineering achievements. (glossary, bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2010

ISBN: 978-1-59643-162-1

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Flash Point/Roaring Brook

Review Posted Online: July 30, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
PHARAOH’S BOAT
by David Weitzman & illustrated by David Weitzman

- BOOK REVIEW
A SUBWAY FOR NEW YORK
by David Weitzman & illustrated by David Weitzman

- BOOK REVIEW
THE JOHN BULL
by David Weitzman & illustrated by David Weitzman

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THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

by Wafa’ Tarnowska & illustrated by Carole Hénaff ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2010

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In a large, handsome format, Tarnowska offers six tales plus an abbreviated version of the frame story, retold in formal but contemporary language and sandwiched between a note on the Nights’ place in her childhood in Lebanon and a page of glossary and source notes. Rather than preserve the traditional embedded structure and cliffhanger cutoffs, she keeps each story discrete and tones down the sex and violence. This structure begs the question of why Shahriyar lets Shahrazade [sic] live if she tells each evening’s tale complete, but it serves to simplify the reading for those who want just one tale at a time. Only the opener, “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp,” is likely to be familiar to young readers; in others a prince learns to control a flying “Ebony Horse” by “twiddling” its ears, contending djinn argue whether “Prince Kamar el Zaman [or] Princess Boudour” is the more beautiful (the prince wins) and in a Cinderella tale a “Diamond Anklet” subs for the glass slipper. Hénaff’s stylized scenes of domed cityscapes and turbaned figures add properly whimsical visual notes to this short but animated gathering. (Folktales. 10-12)