It's a pity that the real story behind this actual, extraordinary piece of ornate French décor is withheld, leaving readers...
The fictionalized story behind the creation of a 19th-century chandelier currently on display in the J. Paul Getty Museum.
In the early 1800s, Louis Alexandre enjoys visiting his Uncle Henri on his expansive estate just outside of Paris. On his latest visit, he finds his artist uncle distraught, unable to conceive a new design for a chandelier, which must incorporate the four classical elements: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. Several days of collaborative thinking, drawing, designing and building produce the unusual and intriguing light fixture, which includes a blue sphere with stars, griffins and a crystal bowl filled with swimming goldfish. The lengthy narration features the internal recounting of adventurous tales that serve as inspiration for the characters’ creativity. Intricate, darkly tinted ink-and-watercolor paintings depict the well-to-do gentleman and his nephew, both in ruffled shirts, imagining, consulting and overseeing the creation of a new masterpiece. They provide relief from the long-winded text, which, though not without humor, does readers a disservice in its baroque construction. An author’s note provides some clarification but no true investigation of the actual manufacture of the chandelier.
It's a pity that the real story behind this actual, extraordinary piece of ornate French décor is withheld, leaving readers cheated of a true exploration of art history. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60606-094-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Getty Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
A deeply felt narrative, distilled from contemporary reports and documents.
A Southern novelist looks to the Civil War’s immediate aftermath in this newly free child’s account of a weary search for his mother.
“War’s over. Government say we free. Folks be on the move. Getting the feel for freedom. Not me.” He joins the large number of ex-slaves who, “all hope and hurry on,” have hit the road in search of brighter futures, but young Gabe has a different goal: tracking down his sold-away and only living parent Rosie Lee. Keeping his goal before him like the fixed North Star, he travels for months from Mobile to the “worn-down toes of the Appalachian Mountains,” following vague leads from sympathetic listeners and offices of the Freedman’s Bureau, enduring hardships and disappointment. Applying paint in thickly brushed impasto, Shepherd views Gabe’s world and encounters from a child’s-eye height but gives the barefoot, raggedly clad boy a look of hard-won maturity that points to past sorrows and underscores the depth of his determination. His distinct voice will draw readers into caring about his quest and sharing the tide of joy that accompanies his ultimate success: “That night, I slept snuggled up tight with my mama, praying for all those boys like me searching for their mamas who be searching for them.”
A deeply felt narrative, distilled from contemporary reports and documents. (afterword) (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-933693-97-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
Stylized and idealized but with some potential as a discussion starter.
A young traveler discovers a world of wonders hidden in a seemingly ordinary word.
Though assured by his industrious parents that there is nothing beyond their rural cottage but “work and more work,” Tom sets out to see for himself. Odd jobs eventually lead him to sail off to encounter tea in China, indigo in a busy Indian marketplace and cinnamon in tropical Ceylon. Years later he returns to tell his parents that all over the world “people are busy making beautiful things.” “I told you so,” responds his mother. “Wherever you go—just work and more work.” The narrative is a bare recitation of events, but in her afterword, Little explains that she visualizes Tom as starting out near Liverpool around 1840, then goes on to describe in some detail his parents’ occupations and how tea, indigo and cinnamon were harvested and prepared for export at that time. Showing technical dazzle but a fussy sensibility, Pérez renders foliage, architectural features and period dress in precise, superfine detail but gives human figures oversized heads, studied gestures, and tiny hands and feet. Moreover, though Tom is supposedly gone long enough to become “a young man and quite different from the boy who had left,” in the illustrations he ages not at all, greeting his parents wearing the same clothes he set out in.
Stylized and idealized but with some potential as a discussion starter. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-55498-383-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
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