The True Story of A Remarkable Friendship
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Scholastic Press
Published June 2022 40 pages
Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Illustrator: Keith Henry Brown
Characters: Tybre Faw and John Lewis
Overview:
"When young Tybre Faw discovers John Lewis and his heroic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the fight for voting rights, Tybre is determined to meet him. Tybre’s two grandmothers take him on the seven-hour drive to Selma, Alabama, where Lewis invites Tybre to join him in the annual memorial walk across the Bridge. And so begins a most amazing friendship!"
Tantalizing taste:
" When you're a kid from
Johnson City, Tennessee,
home to the Tweetsie Trail
and a lake called Boone,
when you're a kid
growing up
in the days of Black Lives Matter,
you know the power of hope
that glistens at sunrise.
Tybre's grandmothers know it, too.
They pour all their hopes
into that child's future.
In their eyes, he is the light
that shines on tomorrow,
while his brilliance flickers today."
And something more: At the back of the book, the Two Journeys, One Dream essay explains: "After a moving and magical meeting with the congressman, and joining him for the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on that day in 2018, Tybre stayed friends with John. Tybre quickly dove into activism. He marched for school safety, human rights, immigrant equality, and any other cause he believed was worth fighting for ...
Congressman John Lewis died on July 17, 2020 ... Tybre, now twelve years old, was invited to recite the congressman's favorite poem, 'Invictus,' by William Ernest Henley.
Tybre finished by saying, 'John Lewis was my hero, my friend. Let's honor him by getting in good trouble.'"
How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Dial Books for Young Readers
(Penguin Random House)
Published April 2022 40 pages
Author: Shannon Stocker
Illustrator: Devon Holzwarth
Character: Evelyn Glennie
Overview:
"From the moment Evelyn Glennie heard her first note, music held her heart. She played the piano by ear at age eight, and the clarinet by age ten. But soon, the nerves in her ears began to deteriorate, and Evelyn was told that, as a deaf girl, she could never be a musician.
What sounds Evelyn couldn’t hear with her ears, though, she could feel resonate through her body as if she, herself, were a drum. And the music she created was extraordinary. Evelyn Glennie had learned how to listen in a new way. And soon, the world was listening too."
Tantalizing taste:
" She listened to the buzz of the wide world around her.
VROOM! Distant trucks zoomed by.
Evelyn's legs listened, hum, hum, humming with the rattle of the road.
WAH-WAH-WAH. Muffled voices muttered through an underwater fog.
Evelyn's eyes listened, turning murmurs into words.
Thrum hum-hum-hum
Evelyn became so sensitive to each vibration that she could tune an instrument based only on where she felt the vibrations in her body."
And something more: Shannon Stocker, in the Author's Note, explains: "I was fortunate enough to talk with Evelyn many times, which allowed me to write a story that reflects her true experiences. During our discussion, I asked her what message she'd like young readers to hear. Her simple answer resonated: 'Create your own story,' she said. 'You cannot wait for things to happen to you. You must make your own opportunities.'
...She may not listen like a 'hearing' person, but she listens nonetheless. And now she's made it her mission to teach the world to listen too...
She has accepted more than one hundred international awards and honorary doctorates including two Grammy Awards..."
The Art of El Anatsui
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Lee & Low Books
(pub. May 2022) 40 pages
Author: Alison Goldberg
Illustrator: Elizabeth Zunon
Character: El Anatsui
Overview:
"The inspiring biography of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui whose handmade sculptures, created from discarded bottle tops, have received international acclaim and been showcased around the world.
If you touch something, you leave a charge on it and anybody else touching it connects with you, in a way. -- El Anatsui
El Anatsui has always written his own story. As an art student at the University of Ghana, El noticed that the artists and styles he was studying were grounded in European traditions. Curious about his own culture's art history, El observed his people and found stories in the fabrics they wore and the way they used recycled goods. He decided to tell these stories through his artwork."
Tantalizing taste:
"In 2007, El brought his bottle tops to Venice.
As he hung his thirty-foot-tall sculpture, he created curves to reflect the light and folds for catching shadows. He cut holes to reveal the building underneath.
The sculpture wove together old art traditions and original techniques. Recalling history, and shaping the present. Attached, and flexible. El gave it a name: Fresh and Fading Memories.
Viewers stood close, admiring the small metal shapes. They stood back, astonished by the bottle tops' transformation into an enormous, shimmering cloth. This sculpture was unlike anything people had ever seen.
El had found a new medium for making art.
Linked together, bottle tops can cover buildings They can tell stories about history and culture - stories that link people together.
Today, El's bottle tops tell stories all over the world.
When I started with the aluminum tops I had a small feeling somewhere that it wouldn't last too long. But today, fresh ideas keep coming and I now feel that it's something endless."
And something more: I was thrilled to see another picture book biography illustrated by the talented Elizabeth Zunon (who illustrated our MY HANDS SING THE BLUES - Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey). I enjoyed reading her introduction to BOTTLE TOPS on her website (www.lizzunon.com) :
"I first saw El’s work while visiting the High Museum of Art in Atlanta with my brother and our mom in 2016. I initially thought those pieces on exhibit were Kente fabrics, and didn’t realize until a closer look that they were made up of little metal pieces from bottle caps. I was mesmerized by the technique and the amount of time it must have taken to create such monumental art. Investigating El’s artistic processes inspired me to re-think my own art-making techniques and what is possible."
I too was amazed by El Anatsui's enormous artwork when I saw his piece, Strips of Earth's Skin, at the Broad in Los Angeles - shimmering, glimmering, powerfully beautiful.
