The Genius of Ursula Nordstrom
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Anne Schwartz Books
(Random House Kids)
(pub. 9.19.2023)
48 pages
4 - 8 years
Author: Beth Kephart
Illustrator: Chloe Bristol
Character: Ursula Nordstrom
Overview:
" Ursula Nordstrom was a grown-up who never forgot what it was to be a child. The girl who'd always loved to read would grow up to work in the Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper & Brothers Publishers. Soon she was editing books by Margaret Wise Brown and E. B. White, discovering new talent like John Steptoe and Maurice Sendak, and reinventing what a book for children should be.
'Children want to be seen,' she'd tell her writers. 'Not good enough for you,' she'd scribble in the margins of their manuscripts, asking them to revise. Her favorite books of all? 'Good books for bad children,' she'd say. And those books went on to win every award imaginable, including the Caldecott and Newbery Medals and the National Book Award."
Tantalizing taste:
"Ursula published what she pleased.
She was curious.
She was honest.
She knew what to ask her writer and artists
and how best to listen -
how to stare out through her bright blue eyes
and her wide spectacles
and encourage their most fabulous stories.
'Children want to feel seen,' she said,
in a voice some called musical
and some called gravelly.
'Children deserve our best.'"
And something more: Beth Kephart, in the Author's Note writes that Maurice Sendak said, "I loved her on first meeting. My happiest memories, in fact, are of my earliest career, when Ursula was my confidante and best friend."
Beth Kephart shares about her inspiration for writing this story: "I fell in love with Nordstrom several years ago, when teaching children's literature at the University of Pennsylvania...[and when she learned that Ursula proudly defended] E. B. White's right to write about a talking mouse named Stuart Little. My kind of editor ... I have followed her through the channels of my own imagination - puzzling through her inconsistencies, weighing the mythologies, and doing my utmost best to honor her, with the help of my own perfection-nudging editor, Anne Schwartz."
Ernestine's Gift for
President Roosevelt
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Millbrook Press
(Lerner Publishing)
(pub. 9.5.2023)
32 pages
Ages 5-9
Author: Lupe Ruiz-Flores
Illustrator: Anna López Real
Character: Ernestine Guerrero
Overview:
" During the Great Depression, times were tough for families across the United States. In San Antonio, Texas, Ernestine Guerrero and her family relied on wooden crates of free food from the government.
The Mexican American teen was so grateful for the government food aid they received that she wanted to personally thank President Roosevelt. But how? After seeing the plans for a very difficult woodworking project, she decided she would make it herself and send it to the president. Piece by piece, that's exactly what she did. And the clock case she built remains on display in the Roosevelt Presidential Library to this day.
With stunning illustrations from Anna López Real, this picture book tells the inspiring true story of a girl who proved that if you look closely, treasure can be found in unexpected places."
Tantalizing taste:
"One day, her uncle
gave her a woodworking pattern for a clock case
called the Chimes of Normandy.
Ernestine studied it closely
and discovered the pattern required 156 pieces of wood.
Each piece had to fit together
to make the 40-inch-high clock case.
It seemed like an impossible task,
and that's how she knew it was the right way to thank the president."
And something more: Lupe Ruiz-Flores, in the Author's Note explains that "the sculpture and Ernestine's letter to the president are part of an exhibit at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in upstate New York. Unfortunately, the letter from the president thanking Ernestine for the gift was destroyed in a house fire... Ernestine never knew that she had become part of history when her two-year labor of love created from discarded wooden crates became a permanent display in the FDR museum. Her daughters have visited the dispay in New York and are extremely proud that their mother's memory is being kept alive."
A Portrait of David Hockney
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Abrams Books for Young Readers
(pub. 9.19.2023)
48 pages
Ages 4-8
Author and Illustrator: Evan Turk
Character: David Hockney
Overview:
"Growing up under the gray skies of England during World War II, David Hockney used art to brighten his world. He discovered that the more he looked and drew, the more he could see beneath the surface to find beauty, possibility, and new perspectives. In the most ordinary things, whether a splash of water, a changing landscape, or the face of a friend, David always found something to love, uniquely capturing the vibrancy and life of his subjects."
Tantalizing taste:
"David especially loved looking at the swimming pools. He enjoyed the way you could see the surface of the water, but also see through it to what was underneath. He felt that there was always more than one way to see something - and that the more carefully you looked, the more possibilities opened up.
He also liked the way painting made time slow down. He once spent two weeks depicting a giant splash of water that had only existed for a couple of seconds in real life!"
And something more: Evan Turk, in the Author's Note explains that "I remember walking through the David Hockney retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2017 and feeling the enormous weight and excitement that comes with seeing an artist's life's work laid out in front of you. [I too saw such an amazing comprehensive exhibit at the DeYoung in San Francisco] ... His work is skilled, inventive, varied, and full of joy. As a gay artist myself, it was especially powerful to see his fearlessness ... But beyond that, what inspires me most about David Hockney's work is his relentless curiosity and love of life. The ability to get up every day and choose to see more beauty in the world is one of the greatest gifts an artist can give."
