WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 77Review_CHILDREN’S
and the movement of wings” and “insects and the patterns
they made in the dirt” (in one spread, the girl dreamily rides
an enormous insect). And when her grandfather dies, she draws
on the “feeling of the rainbow” to propel herself forward, in art
and in life. Celej employs washes in the subdued palette that
Martin favored, using a motif of lines that hint at the artist’s
later creations. Though readers won’t gain an understanding
of Martin’s body of work, an author’s note contextualizes this
airy, conceptual look at “Agnes’s early sense of abstraction.”
Ages 4–8. (May)
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks
Suzanne Slade, illus. by Cozbi A. Cabrera. Abrams, $17.99 (48p)
ISBN 978-1-4197-3411-3
In stirring free verse and resplendent acrylic paintings,
these collaborators pay affecting tribute to Brooks, who, in
1950, became the first black person to receive a Pulitzer
Prize. Laced with Brooks’s spoken and written words, the
lyrical narrative by Slade echoes the personal tenor of the
subject’s poetry, inspired by “the nonstop busyness, the
hard-luck grittiness” of her neighborhood in Chicago’s South
Side. One of Brooks’s poems, “Clouds,” printed at the book’s
end, provides a leitmotif executed in tandem by Slade and
Cabrera; in one spread that includes a quote from the poet, a
young Brooks gazes at a cotton candy–hued sunset sky,
dreaming about the future. Despite publishers’ rejection letters
and financial struggles during the Depression, she continued
to believe in that hopeful future as “everywhere she looked,
Gwendolyn saw more stories that needed to be told. So she
kept writing.” This fine biography should ignite readers’
interest in exploring Brooks’s exquisite writing. Ages 6–9.
(Apr.)
★ Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring
Matthew Burgess, illus. by Josh Cochran. Enchanted Lion, $18.95
(64p) ISBN 978-1-59270-267-1
In this picture book biography about artist and muralist
Haring, Burgess and Cochran relate their subject’s path to
focusing his inexorable drive. Via straightforward language,
Burgess describes Haring discovering Robert Henri’s The Art
Spirit in college (“He felt as if the book was speaking directly
to him”), encountering the large paintings of Pierre Alechinsky
(he was “blown away”), and recognizing a common impulse
in dancers at the West Village’s Paradise Garage (“For Keith,
drawing and painting were like dancing. He called it ‘mind-
to-hand flow’”). Cochran uses a thick black line to suggest
Haring’s creations, and renders figures in a Haring-esque
style without seeming gimmicky. Of interest to young
readers are Haring’s frequent efforts to involve children in
mural-making projects. The story, including a respectful
acknowledgement of Haring’s death from AIDS, makes the
subject seem immediate and real—and presents a compelling
vision of answering the call to create. Ages 6–14. (May)Jacob Riis’s Camera:
Bringing Light to Tenement Children
Alexis O’Neill, illus. by Gary Kelley. Calkins Creek, $18.99 (48p)
ISBN 978-1-62979-866-0
The compelling activism of Jacob Riis animates this
beautifully illustrated picture book biography. O’Neill
pulls Riis’s life as a U.S. immigrant from Denmark into
sharp focus, using vignettes to demonstrate how his experi-
ences amplified his activism: “Often penniless, Jacob slept
in abandoned barns, fields and cemeteries, and in homeless
shelters that were so filthy and disease-ridden, he vowed to
put an end to them someday.” Eventually a successful
reporter, Riis was outraged by the state of New York City’s
tenements and slums but was unable to effect change until
he hit upon the idea of using flash photography to capture
images of the decrepit buildings and their occupants.
Kelley’s expressive illustrations, created using etching ink
and pastel, mix human touch and snapshot sensibility, and
give a nod to Riis’s photos. A few of Riis’s stunning images are
included in the supplemental materials, alongside a list of his
achievements for the social good. Ages 7–10. (May)The Bird in Me Flies
Sara Lundberg, trans. from the Swedish by B.J. Epstein. Groundwood,
$18.95 (120p) ISBN 978-1-77306-260-0
Gracefully translated by Epstein, this illustrated biog-
raphy of Swedish painter Berta Hansson (1910–1994) traces
a rural childhood that twines tragedy with the burning
desire to create art. Berta loves to draw, but she lives on a
farm, where art is a luxury not to be
thought of—especially since her
mother is bedridden with tubercu-
losis. The family doctor recognizes
Berta’s talent, but her father dis-
misses it. She considers her future
with only scraps of inspiration—a
Sistine Chapel picture from her
uncle, paintings glimpsed through
a window. In verse and dozens of poignant, intimate
gouaches, Lundberg shows Berta’s family at their tasks, the
countryside around their farm, and images of Berta drawing
and molding clay, forming small bird shapes that symbolize
her readiness to take flight. Lundberg’s handsome biography
of self-discovery remembers an artist who came to know
without a doubt who she was meant to be. Ages 9–12.
(May)