From the riveting to the humorous to the inventive, these biographies of
significant individuals mesmerize readers with their attention to captivating
details, seizing one’s interest, and often impelling one to further
exploration. This small collection
of artists, a poet, and leaders, also contains two different books about the
same musician. For adults who want
to read something more than the usual fare of stories with the important
children in your life, these absorbing books open opportunities for
conversation with your child about compelling elements in the lives of these
amazing dreamers.
Vivaldi’s Four
Seasons
by Anna Harwell Celenza
illustrated by JoAnn E. Kitchel
Charlesbridge, $19.99, Ages 6-10
Eighteenth
century Venice, known as the city of music, is where Vivaldi’s pieces are played
by orphan girls until the board stops paying him and he leaves to make his music
elsewhere. When he is lured back
by the promise of his works being played regularly, he sends two compositions
every month, and later arrives to tell the story of his music as they
play.
The famous Four Seasons Concerto is the
focus of this heartwarming story of friendship between the composer and the
students who love him. Imaginative
watercolor paintings amplify the text and kindle the poetry of the music.
The
seasonal Sonnets are printed at the story’s end, followed by an Author’s
Note. Also included is a CD
recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
The Fantastic
Jungles of Henri Rousseau
by Michelle Markel
illustrated by Amanda
Hall
Eerdmans, $17.00, Ages 5-9
Henri
Rousseau begins painting after he’s forty years old, teaching himself by
examining “paintings of his favorite artists,” and studying photographs, “postcards,
magazines and catalogues.” When he
paints on canvas with bold colors, he’s often startled by what emerges, and
despite ridicule and limited finances, he persists.
After
a time, younger artists are impressed, and join him when he hosts a party in
his neighborhood to feature the music students he teaches. Even Picasso throws a banquet to honor
him. At the end, an Author’s Note
explains briefly about his imagination and the dreams he painted. An Illustrator’s Note describes her
trip to Paris for research and her combined use of watercolor and acrylics in
her playful illustrations.
Colorful Dreamer:
The Story of Artist Henri Matisse
by Marjorie Blain Parker
illustrated by
Holly Berry
Dial, $16.99, Ages
5-10
From
an industrial nineteenth century French village emerged a dreamer whose early
attempts to become a lawyer tied his stomach in knots so severely that he was
hospitalized. There he discovered
painting and after he was released, music. Although initially unable to earn a living, gradually his
bright colors and mischievous paintings earned him both respect and an
income.
The art for this book begins in near
colorless blacks, grays, and tans on white. By contrast, the following pages roar with color as Henri’s
imagination soars. Berry’s
illustrations pop with movement and bright shapes to companion the text and
vividly express Matisse’s famous brilliant paintings.
In his final years, back in bed, Henri
“’painted’ with colored paper.” “As
more and more people noticed” his famous collages, he drew “with scissors”
until his death. A Note about
Henri Matisse is included at the back.
Monet Paints a Day
by Julie
Danneberg
illustrated by Caitlin Heimerl
Charlesbridge, $15.95, Ages 7-9
Written
as if Monet himself were sending a letter to his fiancé, Alice, the text speaks
as if the artist were currently doing the painting. A sidebar on each double page spread offers a short snippet
of information. On this day Monet
is so focused that the sea explodes over him, washing everything away before
“the ocean spits me out” on the sand with only his empty palette in his hand.
At the back are an Author’s Note, Monet’s
Painting Techniques, and a Bibliography.
Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin
Franklin
by Robert Byrd
Dial,
$17.99, Ages 8-14
This
picturebook biography of Benjamin Franklin is clearly for children older than
the usual storybook crowd -- with its dense text and intricate, detailed, and nearly
cartoon-like ink-line, watercolor, and colored ink illustrations. Especially for those with an interest
in history, the subject’s own autobiography and his writings supply an abundance
of information, reflection and insight into the person of one of the most
celebrated individuals of his time, and one who is still considered influential
even into the current century.
Born
into a working class family, Ben, as we still familiarly call him, discovered
early on the delights of reading and the written word, becoming a printer,
which he considered himself all his life.
With his restless imagination and fertile creativity he not only used
his skill as a writer to become a wealthy man but, investing himself in his
community, he believed profoundly in organizing and planning with others, to
solve problems for the “common benefit of mankind.” From establishing a hospital, a fire brigade, a police
force, and schools of many different kinds, to inventing streetlights, a
heating stove, bifocals, and a twenty-four hour clock -- to name a few --
Franklin felt it was his “civic duty to share anything that improved the common
good.”
As a self-trained scientist,
philosopher, negotiator and diplomat, Franklin’s skills became an invaluable
asset to not only the city of Philadelphia (his residence), but also to the
emerging American nation, as it navigated independence. His sense of humor, lack of arrogance,
innate curiosity, skill in conversation, openness, and sense of respect for
others have rightfully earned him the descriptor of “Renaissance man.”
This
book, which includes an Introduction, Author’s Note, Timeline, and Bibliography,
is itself inventive and engaging, especially as a tribute to a similarly
appealing, ingenious and resourceful individual.
Master of Deceit:
J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies
by Marc
Aronson
Candlewick Press, $25.99,
Ages 14+
Professor,
editor, and award-winning author Aronson, whose passion for historical detail
and interest in the individuals who populate our country’s past, is once again
evident in the research, writing, and archival photos, chosen to illustrate
this almost novel-like biography, of one of the most influential officials in
both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Government. Arranged in seven parts that include
chapters, and corresponding to eras during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, they are arranged in chronological order, leading teen readers into the
story, and inviting back and forth comparisons between the parts.
Hoover’s
secrecy, use of power, and tangle of control, security, and relationships
characterize this book of historic intrigue, challenging readers to explore
stimulating material, consider the questions the author raises, and probe the
questions that surface in the reader’s own mind, as the pages unfold.
Beginning
with a tantalizing Prologue, the contents include an Epilogue, Notes,
Bibliography, Index, and an exceedingly readable and absorbing section of back
matter about the author’s own fears experienced during the research and writing
of the book.
Desmond and the
Very Mean Word: A Story of Forgiveness
by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas
Carlton Abrams
illustrated by A.G. Ford
Candlewick Press, $15.99, Ages 6-9
In one of South
Africa’s poor townships Desmond speeds on his beautiful new bike to show his
friend, Father Trevor. A
red-haired boy among a gang shouts a mean word, repeated by the others. Desmond is hurt by this, and even
forgets why he wanted to see Father Trevor, who knows something is wrong as
soon as Desmond arrives.
The
illustrations done with illuminating oil paints reflect the action in the text,
as we see the yelling red-haired boy in near life size, on a double-page
spread, followed several pages later, by Desmond’s face in similar size and
shouting mode. The colors of the
daylight contrast with the darker night and indoors, reflecting Desmond’s
painful experience of bullying.
Desmond’s
observation of the red-haired boy being bullied by his older brothers offers
Desmond space to reflect on Father Trevor’s insightful comments. Later, when
the two boys encounter each other, Desmond is able to make the first move
toward forgiveness.
Based
on an actual incident in the Archbishop’s early life, and also on his childhood
hero, Father Trevor, this vivid tale, with its vigorous illustrations supplies
readers with an unsentimental but compassionate message about forgiveness. An Author’s Note is included.
Pablo Neruda: Poet
of the People
by Monica Brown
illustrated by Julie Paschkis
Henry Holt, $16.99, Ages 5-9
Using
poetic language, Brown shows readers Chilean poet and Nobel Laureate Pablo
Neruda, who as a child loved words, although his father didn’t approve of his
poetry. As “the poet of the
people,” Neftali renamed himself Neruda and became “one of the most influential
poets of the twentieth century.”
Illustrator
Paschkis’ paintings twirl with words; words written on the leaves and tree
trunks Neruda loved, words whirling golden orange to create the sun, and blue
and white, to make the moon, words that make up the oceans waves, words written
on the streets, and flowers, and swirling as the wind.
An
Author’s Note is at the end with a list of Resources.
Vivaldi and the
Invisible Orchestra
by Stephen Costanza
Henry Holt, $16.99, Ages 4-8
A
daydreamer of music, Vivaldi wrote many of his pieces for the musicians of the
all-girls orphanage in Venice, who were famous for their spirited playing while
hidden behind a curtain. This
lyrical story, accompanied by pastel illustrations, introduces us to another
daydreamer, Candida, who copies Vivaldi’s music for the instrumentalists, and
begins to write words, poetry even, to accompany his notes. An Author’s Note concludes the story.
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