Monet Paints A Day

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Charlesbridge

(pub. 7.1.2012) 48 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Julie Danneberg

     and Illustrator: Caitlin Heimerl

C haracter: Claude Monet

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Claude Monet lugs his half-finished painting and supplies to the beach. Massive white cliffs tower over him. Waves gently lap the sand under his feet. And winter sunlight illuminates the giant stone arch - the Manneporte - standing before him. Monet takes it in. Then, armed with canvases, paints, and brushes, he paints a day. Engrossed in his work, he forgets to watch the tide ...

       Based on a true incident, Monet Paints a Day introduces readers to the Impressionist artist Claude Monet. Lush watercolor illustrations in the Impressionist style show the painter both in his element and struggling against it."

        

T antalizing taste: 

"Quickly I ...

ruffle my paintbrush against the canvas as jade waters

ruffle against the shore's edge ...

drag paint across the canvas as retreating waves

drag silver sand into the ocean...

flutter and dab my brush at the canvas as the sea foam

flutters briefly above the surf and disappears."

                       

and something more: In the Author's Note, Julie Danneberg explains the style of writing and focus she chose for Monet Paints A Day: "I intended the story to read in much the same way as one might view Monet's Impressionist paintings. Although you don't see all the details of Monet's life and art in this story, you certainly get a sense of how single-minded and focused Monet was when he worked. He spent a lifetime trying to capture on canvas the beauty of nature, of light, of air, and of water." And I think the lovely watercolor illustrations by RISD grad, Caitlin Heimerl, perfectly reflect Monet's focus on the "beauty of nature, of light, of air, and of water." 

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Rachel Carson

And Her Book That Changed The World

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Hope Is the Word

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Holiday House

(pub. 2.1.2012) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Laurie Lawlor

     and Illustrator:  Laura Beingessner

C haracter: Rachel Carson

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "'Once you are aware of the wonder and beauty of earth, you will want to learn about it,' wrote Rachel Carson, the pioneering environmentalist. Rachel found many adventurous ways to study nature. She went diving to investigate coral reefs and tracked alligators on a rumbling 'glades buggy' through the Florida Everglades.
        However, one of the bravest things she did was to write and publish Silent Spring, a book pointing out the dangerous effects of chemicals on the living world... Silent Spring went on to become the book that woke up people to the harmful impact humans were having on our planet."

        

T antalizing taste: 

"As a biologist for fifteen years,
she went places where few women ventured...
counting deep-sea fish in foggy,
dangerous currents south of Nova Scotia;
observing reef animals in a special suit
with an eighty-four-pound diving helmet
off the coast of Florida...
Meanwhile she worked on her own writing in the evening or on weekends.
She began to notice disturbing trends.
What happened to the web of life
when more and more garbage was dumped into the ocean?
How did rising ocean temperatures affect living creatures?"

                       

and something more: I thought the quote from Vice President Al Gore included in the Epilogue perfectly sums up the importance of Rachel Carson's work and book: "Silent Spring came as a cry in the wilderness, a deeply felt, thoroughly researched, and brilliantly written argument that changed the course of history. Without this book, the environmental movement might have been long delayed or never have developed at all."

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Coppernickel Goes Mondrian

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Enchanted Lion Books

(pub. 5.8.12) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: Wouter Van Reek 

C haracter: fictional Mr. Quickstep (alias for Piet Mondrian) 

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Mr. Quickstep (alias for Mondrian) is looking for the future. On the way, he bumps into Coppernickel. Coppernickel tells Mr. Quickstep he shouldn't bother looking since the future will arrive anyway. Quickstep disagrees, for the future he's after doesn't exist, but needs to be discovered. What stands out in this graphically distinguished homage to one of the great artists of the 20th century is the idea that the future is ours to create. A wonderfully imaginative story about art, vision and creativity!" 

        

T antalizing taste: 

           "'Look, I'm on the verge of a completely new future,' says Mr. Quickstep. 'I can feel it.'

             'But there's still something missing ... a touch of something so new it may not even exist yet.'

[Illustration shows Mr. Quickstep in his studio with classic Mondrian primary color square/rectangle paintings against the wall. And he's holding a roll of tape.]

            'What have you got here?' says Coppernickel. 'This is great stuff! Does it stick to everything? Can I give it a try?'

         

and something more: The note at the back of Coppernickel Goes Mondrian explains that "In the 1930s, with Hitler's rise to power, Mondrian realized he could no longer stay in Paris, so he fled, first to London, then to New York ... He loved New York immediately, with its straight avenues, skyscrapers, busy streets and vibrant atmosphere... His new friends took him to dance halls where the very newest music, the boogie-woogie, was being played. .. New York thus inspired him to recreate himself once again... For the first time, he began to stick lengths of colored tape onto his canvases. This allowed him to move and shift his colors as often as he liked until everything looked just right. Only then would he replace the colored tape with paint.  It was in this way that he created his renowned, Broadway Boogie Woogie."

       San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has a wonderful Mondrian painting, New York City 2 (unfinished), that still has tape on it so viewers get to see Mondrian's process.  As a docent for school groups at SFMOMA, I've led a fun art project in front of this artwork in which students  use colored tape to create their own Mondrian inspired paintings. They always create wonderful art!

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The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau

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hosted today by Wrapped in Foil

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Eerdmans Books
for Young Readers

(pub. 6.11.2012) 34 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Michelle Markel

     and Illustrator:  Amanda Hall

C haracter: Henri Rousseau

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Henri Rousseau loved nature, and basked in the beauty of the sunshine and the towering trees of Paris. He wanted to capture all of this, so he taught himself to paint. And then he worked until the jungles and animals and distant lands in his head came alive on the space of his canvases.
      Rousseau endured many harsh critics to create his brilliant paintings. Michelle Markel's vivid text and Amanda Hall's vibrant illustrations together artfully introduce young readers to this beloved painter."
        

T antalizing taste: 

"Henri Rousseau wants to be an artist. 
Not a single person has ever told him he is talented. 
He's a toll collector. 
He' s forty years old.

      

But he buys some canvas, paint, and brushes, 

and starts painting anyway.

Why? Because he loves nature. Because

when he strolls through the parks of Paris,

it's like the flowers open their hearts,

the trees spread their arms, and the sun

is a blushing ruby, all for him."

                       

and something more: I didn't realize that Henri Rousseau began painting at age forty without formal training, and that his art was ridiculed year after year. Michelle Markel's Author's Note in The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau explains that he "gradually developed a following. Avant-garde artists and writers such as Picasso, Delaunay, Jarry, and Apollinaire admired his innocence and charm."
          And, although he is best known for his jungle paintings, he could never afford to leave Paris. Instead, he travelled in his mind. As he said to a journalist, "I don't know if you're like me ... but when I go into the glass houses and I see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter into a dream. I feel that I'm somebody else completely."  The power of imagination! 

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