The Price of Freedom

How One Town Stood Up
To Slavery

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Walker Books for Young Readers (Bloomsbury)

(pub. 1.8.2013) 48 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Judith Bloom Fradin and Dennis Brindell Fradin

     and Illustrator: Eric Velasquez

C haracter: People in Oberlin, Ohio, on the Underground Railroad

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "John Price escaped from slavery on a wintry night in January 1856, willing to risk everything for a chance at freedom. He was lucky enough to find a new life in the town of Oberlin, Ohio, then home to many abolitionists and former slaves. But when slave hunters snatched him right off the road two years later, it seemed like that new life was over. Still, John risked everything one more time, yelling for help as a student from the local college passed the wagon.
        John thought his plea went unheard, but the college student sounded the alarm. The people of Oberlin - men and women, black and white - found the slave hunters in Wellington, Ohio, and demanded that Price be set free. When those demands were ignored, they - along with some Wellington residents - took matters into their own hands, risking their own lives and freedom in one of the most dramatic slave rescues in American history."

        

T antalizing taste: 

"Within minutes, hundreds of Oberlinians set out for Wellington. Farmers, shopkeepers, and ministers hurried off to rescue John Price. So did Oberlin College professors and students. Young and old, men and women, fathers and sons, black and white, armed and unarmed - people jammed the roads in carts and buggies, on foot, and on horseback."

                       

and something more:  The back matter of The Price of Freedom explains: "To this day Oberlinians are proud that their forebears followed the 'higher law' in slavery days. The Underground Railroad Sculpture stands on the college campus. Oberlin College student Cameron Armstrong created it in 1977 as part of an art-class project. The sculpture honors the role of the college and town in helping John Price and thousands of others escape slavery." The class of 1977 donated  funds to Oberlin College to preserve it as a permanent sculpture. A wonderful tribute to a courageous and commendable group of people!

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A Splash of Red

The Life and Art of Horace Pippin

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hosted today by Wrapped In Foil

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Alfred A. Knopf/ Random House

(pub. 1.8.2013) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Jen Bryant

     and Illustrator: Melissa Sweet

C haracter: Horace Pippin

O verview from the publisher: 

     "As a child in the late 1800s, Horace Pippin loved to draw...He drew pictures for his sisters, his classmates, his co-workers. Even during W.W.I, Horace filled his notebooks with drawings from the trenches . . . until he was shot. Upon his return home, Horace couldn't lift his right arm, and couldn't make any art. Slowly, with lots of practice, he regained use of his arm, until once again, he was able to paint--and paint, and paint! Soon, people—including the famous painter N. C. Wyeth—started noticing Horace's art, and before long, his paintings were displayed in galleries and museums across the country..."

        

T antalizing taste: 

         "Then, if he could find a scrap of paper and a piece of charcoal, he drew pictures of what he'd seen that day.
        Horace loved to draw. He loved the feel of the charcoal as it slid across the floor. He loved looking at something in the room and making it come alive in front of him. He loved thinking about a friend or a pet, then drawing them from the picture in his mind."

                       

and something more: I was intrigued to read the collaborative efforts behind A Splash of Red. Melissa Sweet recounts the background in her Illustrator's Note: "Typically, authors and illustrators stay fairly separate when making a picture book, but after Jen [Bryant] wrote this text, we bucked the tide by researching Horace Pippin together. Driving through the back roads of eastern Pennsylvania, we shared what we both knew and loved about art and Pippin." 
          And, as Jen Bryant explains in her Author's Note: ".... once the story was written, Melissa and I retraced many of these paths [of her earlier research] and forged some new ones. We were inspired and amazed by the very real struggles in Horace Pippin's life and the incredible, simple elegance of his work. Through his art, he transcended personal loss, injury, poverty, violence, and racism, producing a body of work that remains wholly original and deeply American"... AND inspiring!

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Colorful Dreamer

The Story of Artist
Henri Matisse

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Nonfiction Monday

hosted today by Abby the Librarian

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Dial Books for Young Readers

(pub. 11.8.2012) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Marjorie Blain Parker

     and Illustrator:  Holly Berry

C haracter: Henri Matisse

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "There was once a boy named Henri, whose dreams were full of color even though his hometown was dreary and gray. His parents expected him to take over the family shop when he grew up, but he longed for a more dramatic life, and dreamed of being noticed.
        Then Henri started painting ... and kept painting and dreaming and working at his craft until he'd become one of the most admired and famous artists in the world.
        This vivid, lyrical picture book tells one artist's remarkable story, and in the process inspires all readers to follow their own big dreams."

        

T antalizing taste: 

      "It wasn't easy ... But Henri was stubborn. He refused to give up.
      He dreamed colorful dreams. He painted colorful paintings. And, little by little, people noticed....
       He moved to the coast, where the light was clear and the colors bright. He named his villa 'La Reve' - the Dream - and he filled it with birds and goldfish and flowers and fabrics. Here too he painted, as more and more people noticed."

                       

and something more: Marjorie Blain Parker explains in "A Note about Henri Matisse" at the back of Colorful Dreamer: "And, at first, Matisse's work was laughed at. Art critics sneered at his canvases, considering his technique shocking - the use of green in a woman's face, for example. They called him a Fauve, which is French for 'wild beast'."  
            Just a few days ago, I visited a class of 3rd graders to prepare them for their field trip visit today to The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art where I'm a docent and lead school group tours.  I held up the museum's Matisse painting, Femme au chapeau (Woman with a Hat 1905) and asked the class why they thought the people of Paris were so shocked and angry about this painting when it was first displayed. I called on a boy who was frantically waving his arm, and he responded, "I read a book and it said it was because green isn't a color that is supposed to be on people's faces."  Perhaps it was this very book, and today the boy will get to see the actual painting. Full circle. 

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