The Life of Artist Keith Haring
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(Macmillan)
(pub. 12.1.2020)
48 pages
Author: Tami Lewis Brown
and illustrator: Keith Negley
Character: Keith Haring
Overview:
"Keith Haring believed that art should be enjoyed by everyone. When Keith first moved to New York City, he rode the subway and noticed how the crowds were bored and brusque, and that the subways were decayed and dreary. He thought the people of New York needed liberating, illuminating, and radiating art. So he bought a stick of white chalk and started drawing…"
Tantalizing tast
"With a brush and a pot of paint, he swooped and he swung, he lined and he striped. Black paint splashed as the thick brush dashed, swiping patterns to the beat of loud, thumping music - the way his father had taught him when he was small - until finally the whole room was covered with the strange shapes that rumbled inside Keith's brain."
And something more: In her Author's Note, Tami Lewis Brown explains that "in 1986, he worked with nine hundred children in New York City to paint a banner celebrating the Statue of Liberty's one hundredth birthday, and he wrote (and illustrated, of course) a wonderful book for children called Nina's Book of Little Things. In 2008, a forth-eight-foot-tall balloon inspired by Keith's Man with a Heart debuted in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade."
The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Chronicle Books
(pub. 2.18.2020)
52 pages
Author: Jennifer Berne
and illustrator: Becca Stadtlander
Character: Emily Dickinson
Overview:
"In a small New England town lives Emily Dickinson, a girl in love with small things—a flower petal, a bird, a ray of light, a word. But in those small things her brilliant imagination can see the wide world, and in her words she takes wings. From that vivid mind came poetry that touched the lives of millions and gave readers everywhere a doorway into their own secret souls, and a window from which to fly. Emily Dickinson, who famously wrote 'Hope is the thing/ with feathers that/ perches in the soul,' is brought to life in this moving story of her courage, her faith, and her gift to the world."
Tantalizing taste: "Emily began to dress in white. White like clouds. Like the foam on a wave.
White, like a cocoon in her room from which butterflies were born.
Butterflies that were poems that flew - with Emily - on wings of words.
People in the town said Emily was weird. Emily was strange.
But Emily didn't care what they said of her. Her world was somewhere else.
My Country is Truth."
And something more: Becca Stadtlander writes in her Artist's Note that "the real joy of illustrating this book was in the more abstract ideas of Emily's writing. To interpret this poetry visually was a challenge that broke through my usual way of thinking and helped me grow as an artist... My hope is that young readers will see the things they love in these images and be inspired by Emily's words."
I thoroughly enjoyed my virtual author visit today with the pre-schoolers at Concord Hill School in Chevy Chase, Maryland. They were attentive and engaged, making such great connections and asking wonderful questions. They even did some cool MY HANDS SING THE BLUES inspired collage projects of polar animals!
