Cast in the spirit of her evocative picture-book text for First Painter (illustrated by Rocco Baviera, 2000), veteran novelist and nonfiction writer Lasky offers an apt, poetic tribute to an American classic. Set in O’Keeffe’s legendary retreat, Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiú, N.M., this brief introduction presents a representative day in the later life of the 20th-century painter. Meditative, atmospheric and quietly affecting paintings by the Hans Christian Andersen Award–nominated Israeli painter Eitan consistently evoke O’Keeffe’s singular, curvilinear style and desert-inflected palette. Both author and illustrator employ a light yet meaning-rich touch; the text is spare, the accompanying images (some almost like playful spot art) evoke this unique American landscape and the intense inner life and rooted sensibility of this astounding artist. The book’s quotidian approach is a clear choice—the author wants readers to know this woman through the simple accretion of daily details rather than through an ambitious, fact-driven narrative. Wonderfully understated, this is, on balance, a handsome and appealing complement to Jeanette Winter’s more fact-based My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait (1998) or Rachel Rodriguez and Julie Paschkis’s more inclusive Through Georgia’s Eyes (2006). Includes a brief two-page biographical note with a reproduction of Rust Red Hills, ca. 1930. (author’s note, selected bibliography, sources) (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-374-32529-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2009
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
McDonald’s irrepressible third-grader (Judy Moody Gets Famous, 2001, etc.) takes a few false steps before hitting full stride. This time, not only has her genius little brother Stink submitted a competing entry in the Crazy Strips Band-Aid design contest, but in the wake of her science teacher’s heads-up about rainforest destruction and endangered animals, she sees every member of her family using rainforest products. It’s all more than enough to put her in a Mood, which gets her in trouble at home for letting Stink’s pet toad, Toady, go free, and at school for surreptitiously collecting all the pencils (made from rainforest cedar) in class. And to top it off, Stink’s Crazy Strips entry wins a prize, while she gets . . . a certificate. Chronicled amusingly in Reynolds’s frequent ink-and-tea drawings, Judy goes from pillar to post—but she justifies the pencil caper convincingly enough to spark a bottle drive that nets her and her classmates not only a hundred seedling trees for Costa Rica, but the coveted school Giraffe Award (given to those who stick their necks out), along with T-shirts and ice cream coupons. Judy’s growing corps of fans will crow “Rare!” right along with her. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7636-1446-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
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