Vincent Can’t Sleep by Barb Rosenstock

Vincent Can’t Sleep: Van Gogh Paints the Night Sky by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mary Grandpre. Knopf, 2017.

“At present, I absolutely want to paint a starry sky.”

“It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly colored than the day.”

“If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And . . . it is obvious that putting little white dots on the blue-black is not enough to paint a starry sky.”
~Vincent van Gogh

The themes of this book, Vincent van Gogh’s sleeplessness and his famous painting of a starry night, are inspired by the artist’s actual, frequent bouts with insomnia and of course, by his art. The insomnia, which was probably a symptom of his mental illness, plagued him throughout his life, from boyhood. In this story, biographer Barb Rosenstock sees the inability as a source of inspiration and productivity for the talented and prolific artist. “Vincent’s personality shines through his art—–with each energetic brushstroke and wild color choice, he brings the night to life.”

I have enjoyed learning more about van Gogh and his art ever since last year when a speaker at a retreat I attended made Vincent van Gogh and his art come to life, so to speak. It often takes a true fan, a person who loves a certain artist or poet or writer, to introduce me to whole new world of that person’s art or poetry or fiction. An educated enthusiast can show me a way into another artist’s work that I just can’t find on my own. A friend in college introduced me to the poetry of T.S. Eliot, poems that I originally found confusing and esoteric, and I have enjoyed Eliot ever since. This speaker at the retreat last year introduced me to van Gogh, and I have been running into him, van Gogh, that is, ever since, in many unexpected ways and places.

Vincent Can’t Sleep is yet another gateway that will open up the world of Vincent van Gogh’s art for children, and even adults. Mary Grandpre uses van Gogh’s backgrounds and styles to create her own art for this luminous picture book. It is a tribute to van Gogh, and yet the artwork in it is new and fresh and beautiful in its own right.

Just as the makers of the film about van Gogh, Loving Vincent, used Vincent van Gogh’s art to create something new, the author and illustrator of this book about van Gogh have given me new insights into the man and his work. I didn’t know that he had insomnia, and I didn’t know the quotes about his use of color and paint to create pictures of the night sky. By the way, I highly recommend the film, Loving Vincent, for adults who, after reading this picture book, are interested in learning more about van Gogh and his art.

If you are interested in purchasing ($5.00) a curated list of favorite picture book biographies with over 300 picture books about all sorts of different people, email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom. I’m highlighting picture book biographies in March. What is your favorite picture book about a real person?

A Boy, a Mouse, and a Spider by Barbara Herkert

Mar19

A Boy, a Mouse and a Spider: The Story of E.B. White by Barbara Herkert. Illustrated by Lauren Castillo. Henry Holt and Company, 2017.

“Andy filled his barn with stoic sheep, anxious hens, and gossiping geese. But he still had a mouse on his mind.”

“Andy repaired a roof while another story brewed inside him. He raised a pig and wondered, what if the creature was rescued from a farmer’s deadly plan?”

“One cold October evening, Andy watched a spider spin. He climbed a ladder for a closer look. He’d found the hero of his story.”

In addition to giving readers the basic outlines of the life of beloved author E.B. White, this lovely and colorful picture book biography also tells about the genesis of White’s ideas for his most popular stories, Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. (No swans are mentioned.) Andy is the nickname his fellow journalists gave to newspaper writer, essayist, children’s author Elwyn Brooks White, and his ideas came from his love of animals, his farm in Maine, and “his love of boats, cars, skating, and travel; his love of morning and summertime.”

Any child who adores Charlotte’s Web or Stuart Little would be enthralled by this simple biography which uses brief sentences to paint a picture of a boy who faced his fears and a man who found his life’s work in the “power of words” and “the glory of nature.” Ms. Herkert uses words as Ms. Castillo uses pictures to give us a portrait of Mr. E.B. White that will linger in the mind just as Charlotte and Wilbur and Stuart linger and enlighten and give joy.

Definitely recommended.

The Pilot and the Little Prince by Peter Sis

Mar13

The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antione De Saint Exupery by Peter Sis. Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2014.

Like Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, written and published in the midst of the author’s exile from his native France, during World War II, is an odd book, hard to classify. Is it a book for children or for adults? Is it a philosophical parable or a simple fantasy, or both? Is it full of deep insights, or simply a silly story about a space-traveling prince? It’s certainly, like Alice again, a matter of taste. Some, like me and my youngest daughter, love it, while others find it abstruse and just plain weird. Early critics, when it was first published in New York, said that it was not at all a children’s book, but rather an adult parable in disguise. Therefore, it is fitting that Peter Sis’s picture book biography of author Antione de Saint Exupery is a bit hard to classify—and to read sequentially— as well.

Sis writes a straightforward biographical text that appears at the bottom of each page, but the illustrations are far from straightforward or clearly linear. Mr. Sis gives us much more information about Saint-Exupery, his life, and his times in the context of the pictures that are filled with facts, and maps, and timelines, and anecdotes, than he does in the actual biographical story that parades across the bottom of the pages of his book. This style may not be appealing to every reader. I confess I find it somewhat tedious to read text wrapped in a circle around a small picture or words that wiggle over a mountain or fly up the page instead of across from left to right.

But other readers may become lost (in a good way) in the variations in style and color and format that Sis uses to tell his story about the pilot who became a writer and then a photographer in the French war effort against Nazi Germany.

“The boy would grow up to be a pilot. He would write about courageous flights, but also about places you might find if you were to fly long enough and far enough. What did he find on the earth? What did he find in the sky?”

“On July 31, 1944, at 8:45 a.m., he took off from Brogo, Corsica, to photograph enemy positions east of Lyon. It was a beautiful day. He was due back at 12:30. But he never returned. Some say he forgot his oxygen mask and vanished at sea. Maybe Antoine found his own glittering planet next to the stars.”

The Pilot and the Little Prince could keep an aspiring pilot or writer or Little Prince aficionado amused and enthralled for quite some time. There’s plenty to explore and learn in this busy, beautiful book about a busy man who was an artist with beautiful and meaningful words.

Joan Proctor, Dragon Doctor by Patricia Valdez

Mar12

Joan Proctor, Dragon Doctor: The Woman Who Loved Reptiles by Patricia Valdez, illustrated by Felicita Sala. Knopf, 2018.

In case you’re not current on your famous herpetologists, Joan Proctor was a British expert on amphibians and reptiles who became a curator of reptiles at the Natural History Museum, then a part of the British Museum, just after World War I. In 1923, Joan Proctor was appointed to the post of curator of reptiles at the London Zoo. She designed the Reptile House at the zoo, studied and cared for the reptiles housed there, wrote articles and scientific papers about her findings, and presented her observations and research before the Scientific Meeting of the Zoological Society of London in 1928. All of these accomplishments were done without a college degree and in spite of the chronic illness that kept Ms. Proctor from ever attending college.

Ms. Proctor was particularly interested in and fond of Komodo dragons, especially a Komodo dragon named Sumbawa with whom she took daily walks through the zoo. For any child who is an animal lover, or a fan of reptiles, lizards and snakes, this book would be a treasure.

The book mentions but does not emphasize the fact that Joan Proctor was something of a phenomenon in her day. In a time when middle and upper class women did not work outside the home at all, much less with snakes and lizards in the zoo, Joan Proctor’s work was novel and ground-breaking. The newspaper articles referenced in the bibliography carry titles that indicate that journalists were both curious and a bit shocked by her work:

“English Woman Charms Snakes: Joan Proctor, 25 Years Old, Has Charge of Reptiles in the London Zoo.” The Winnipeg Tribune, August 15, 1923.

“Girl Manages Reptile House in London Zoo.” Mount Carmel Item, December 28, 1929.

“Snakes Alive, and a Lady Who Loves Them. London’s Curator of Reptiles.” The Advertiser, Adelaide, Australia. January 4, 1930.

Unfortunately, Ms. Proctor died young, at the age of thirty-four, from complications due to her chronic illness. But her work and inspiration live on in this timeless picture book biography of a talented and fearless lady who defied expectations to pursue the study and career that she loved. And the book has quite a bit of information about Komodo dragons for readers who are particularly interested in them. (They are rather amazing creations, but I wouldn’t want to take one walking, no matter how tame he was.)

One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll by Kathleen Krull

Mar8

One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll: A Celebration of Wordplay and a Girl Named Alice by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Julia Sarda. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018. 32 pages.

One Fun Day is not exactly a traditional biography or a picture book biography of the famous author and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson as it is a celebration of his life, his storytelling, and his way and play with words. Nevertheless, there is two page spread of text and pictures at the back of the book that tells “more about Lewis Carroll’s journey to the Alice books” as well as a glossary of “words and ideas invented or adapted by Lewis Carroll.”

The main part of the book is a romp through the life, words, and ideas of Mr. Carroll. The book talks about Carroll’s enduring childhood and gives an idea of what a day with Lewis Carroll might have been like. The illustrations are a delight, including a two-page spread of Alice chasing the White Rabbit through Wonderland. There are also numerous pictures of Lewis playing and story-telling with his young friends, and the text incorporates many of the words and phrases that Lewis Carroll originated: chortles, uffish, slithy, uglification, and un-birthday, to name a few.

The day and the book both end with Lewis rich, famous, and busy writing stories: “Lewis Carroll, the man who never forgot how to play, had turned a day of fun into stories that were fabulous and joyous—as he would say, frabjous.”

I wrote in another post about my take on modern-day accusations against Lewis Carroll that I find to be unsupported, revisionist, and unfair. You can check out that post and the links there if you’re interested. But I would suggest that you just enjoy Mr. Carroll on his own terms as he and his work are presented in One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll. This picture book would be a wonderful introduction to a read-aloud of Alice in Wonderland, a book that I love but I find to be somewhat polarizing. Some love it as much as I do; others just can’t understand it or hate it. At least you should try reading it if you haven’t. Alice is quite the adventure. And wordplay is the essence of poetry.

More Lewis Carroll:
Many Happy Returns:January 27th

Of Snarks and Quarks

Radio Jabberwocky

Lewis Carroll’s Christmas Greeting

Manjiro by Emily Arnold McCully

Mar7

Manjiro: The Boy Who Risked His Life for Two Countries by Emily Arnold McCully. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. 40 pages.

“No Japanese ship or boat . . . nor any native of Japan, shall presume to go out of the country; whoso acts contrary to this shall die.” ~Tokugawa Shogunate pronouncement, 1638.

Manjiro, a fisherman’s boy, who was shipwrecked on a fishing trip, then rescued by a Massachusetts whaling ship, seems to have been a resourceful and intelligent young man. He, along with his fellow fishermen, survived six months on a deserted island. He traveled to Massachusetts with the captain of the ship that rescued them, learned English, and reading, and writing, and navigation. Then, he went to the California gold fields and earned enough money for a boat to take him back to Japan. Then, in act of either bravery or desperate homesickness or both, he returned to Japan to face the possible penalty of death for his having left the country of his birth.

I liked reading this brief account of Manjiro’s life, and I believe children who read the book will find his story to be inspiring. It takes perseverance and hard work to encounter a different culture, learn what you can from the other, and then return to be a bridge between cultures and peoples as Manjiro did. This book would be a good addition to studies of Japan and its history, nineteenth century exploration and business, the Gold Rush, whaling, and cultural appreciation. For more information and further study:

Shipwrecked! The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy by Rhoda Blumberg tells more about Manjiro and his life for a slightly older audience.

Commodore in the Land of the Shogun, also by Rhoda Blumberg, tells about the opening of Japan to American and Western influence and trade after two hundred and fifty years of isolation. Manjiro played a part in Commodore Perry’s success in negotiating with Japan’s leaders.

Emily Arnold McCully is a fine writer and illustrator, with many good books to her credit, including The Pirate Queen, a picture book biography of female pirate Grania O’Malley; An Outlaw Thanksgiving, a fictional tale of a Thanksgiving dinner with famous outlaw Butch Cassidy; and Mirette on the High Wire, a Caldecott Award winner.

Wolferl by Lisl Weil

Mar6

Wolferl: The First Six Years in the Life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1762 by Lisl Weil. 32 pages.

This picture book biography uses about thirty pages of text and pictures to tell the engaging story of Mozart’s childhood in Salzburg and in Vienna, and then the author skips to the end to tell us that Mozart “composed a wealth of concertos, sonatas, chamber music, symphonies, operas, Singspiels, church music, contra dances, and Divertimentis.” Then he died at the age of thirty-five, a pauper, but “his music has lived on and is loved by people everywhere.”

Of course, young readers and those who listen to this biography read aloud will focus on the amazing childhood experiences of Mozart and his sister Nannerl, and not the sad ending. After all, their parents thought they were God’s miracles. They performed before kings and queens and emperors and empresses, and then got to go to children’s parties with the royal progeny. Wolferl (Mozart’s nickname, which was short for Johannes Chrisostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) was especially known as a child prodigy, who learned to play the violin, the piano, and organ and compose songs beginning at the tender age of three.

The illustrations, also done by author Lisl Weil, are somewhat cartoonish in stye, but they complement the text nicely and give some idea of the style and grandeur that the Mozart family experienced during their many performances. I wondered if Nannerl was in her younger brother’s shadow, so to speak, because she was a girl or because she was not quite as precocious as the amazing Wolferl or because she was just not as talented as her little brother. Perhaps I can find out more about that aspect of the Mozart saga from another picture book biography that’s on my TBR list, For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart by Elizabeth Rusch.

This book won’t satisfy all the questions that young musicians and readers might have about Wolfgang Amadeus, but it would make a good introduction to his life and work. As follow-up reading, I would suggest:

Books:
Young Mozart by Rachel Isadora.
Mozart Tonight by Julie Downing.
Mozart the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher.
The Story of Mozart by Helen L. Kaufman.

Audio CD story with music:
Mozart’s Magic Fantasy: A Journey Through “The Magic Flute” (Classical Kids)

Out of School and Into Nature by Suzanne Slade

Mar4

Out of School and Into Nature: The Anna Comstock Story by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Jessica Lanon.

“From the time she was no higher than a daisy, Anna was wild about nature. She loved to hold it close in her fingers, she wanted to feel it squish between her toes, which was why she ran barefoot all summer long, raised slimy tadpoles into pet toads, and climbed tall trees instead of sitting in their shade.”

Anna Botsford Comstock was an artist, conservationist, teacher and naturalist during the first half of the twentieth century. She enrolled at Cornell University in 1874, in an era when women were not encouraged to go to college or to study science and nature. Her Handbook of Nature Study, published in 1911, became a standard text for teachers, and she was the first female professor at Cornell University.

This picture book introduces children and adults to the nature-loving Mrs. Comstock and her passion for the importance of nature study as a part of a child’s education. The book includes beautiful nature paintings of everything from butterflies to spiderwebs to sunflowers to stinkbugs, and it would be an inspiration to anyone just starting out to do “nature study” with children.

Out of School and Into Nature also features several quotes from Mrs. Comstock herself concerning the vital importance of children interacting with nature:

“Nature study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful.”

“The nature story is never finished. There is not a weed or an insect or a tree so common that the child, by observing carefully, may not see things never yet recorded.”

In the parlance of Charlotte Mason educators, this picture book about “The Mother of Nature Education” is indeed a living book, as is Comstock’s own Handbook of Nature Study. Let this simple but beautiful book be an introduction to Anna Botsford Comstock and her ideas about nature study, and then move on to her book and share the book and the joys of nature with a child you know. You will both be the richer for having done so.

The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies

Mar1

The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies, illustrated by Melissa Sweet.

This picture book, only 32 pages, does not attempt to even summarize the entire life of artist and naturalist John James Audubon, but it does tell of one particular episode in the life of young Audubon as he was just beginning his life’s work in the study of birds. And that’s what I learned from the book: Audubon didn’t just draw birds, but he also studied their habits and features and habitats as a scientist would.

Audubon grew up in France and learned about birds from his father. He came to America mostly to avoid having to serve in Napoleon’s army. Ms. Davies’ book tells of how John James Audubon experimented and proved a theory about birds: that many birds return to the same nest each year after migrating, and their offspring nest nearby. He confirmed this theory by banding some of the birds he was observing with a silver thread. He was the first person in North America to band a bird.

This picture book story would be wonderful introduction to Audubon’s work, but of course, the next obvious step is to look at Audubon’s paintings and drawings and become familiar with Audubon, the artist. According to the author’s biographical note in the back of the book, “His revolutionary paintings pleased two audiences: scientists, who were drawn to their accuracy, and ordinary people, who simply enjoyed the beauty of his birds.”

Melissa Sweet, who illustrated this lovely picture book, says she was inspired by another aspect of Audubon’s art: “his handwriting and the quality of the handmade papers he used.” Sweet’s art is just that, sweet, and very much in tune with the setting and the cadence of Audubon’s amateur love for birds, which became something much more than amateur, indeed a profession and an art that continues to delight today.

There’s a Dover coloring book, called Audubon’s Birds of America Coloring Book that would be a fantastic go-along with this story. And of course, nothing substitutes for a nature walk and finding your own birds to observe (and draw) in the wild.

Marvelous Mattie by Emily Arnold McCully

Feb28

Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor by Emily Arnold McCully.

I first heard of Margaret Knight as a minor character in Christopher Healy’s book A Dastardly Plot, the first in his new series Perilous Journey of Danger & Mayhem about a late nineteenth century girl and her mother, both of whom are inventors. The girl, Molly Pepper, is a fictional character, but the characters and events that swirl around her madcap adventures are not all fictional: Edison, Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, and of course, Margaret E. Knight.

Margaret Knight was born February 14, 1838. Young Margaret began inventing useful things when she was a child, always sketching ideas and using her tools to build things. Ms.Knight grew up in near-poverty, her father deceased, and went to work in a cotton mill at the age of twelve. As an adult, Ms. Knight had many inventions and over twenty patents to her name by the time of her death in 1914, earning her the title in the popular press of the “Lady Edison.” She had to defend her work in court as a man who tried to steal her ideas said she “could not possibly understand the mechanical complexities” of her own machine, a machine that made flat-bottomed paper bags. But Margaret was able to demonstrate her capabilities in the courtroom, and she won her case.

Another picture book biography about Margaret Knight, in the Great Idea Series by Monica Kulling, is titled In the Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps It Up. I haven’t read this second picture book bio, but it looks good. I think either book would be a lovely way to kick off Women’s History Month in March or to begin a study of inventors and inventions anytime of the year. Then, as an activity or experiment, try folding and cutting a piece of paper to make a paper bag with a flat bottom, and imagine building machine that would make these paper bags for widespread use.

Semicolon

Books we must have though we lack bread.

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