Me, Frida
Amy Novesky
Illustrations by David Diaz
 
When Frida Kahlo came to San Francisco in 1930, she was unknown as an artist, except in Mexico. While her famous husband, Diego Rivera, came to paint a mural, she felt alone and abandoned. Come with author Novesky as she introduces Frida, trying to find her own way by exploring the city. In Caldecott-winner Diaz’s shimmering, stylized paintings, readers watch Frida shopping for colorful silks in Chinatown, taking a ferry to the Marin Headlands, and painting small portraits--she misses Mexico. Finally asserting herself at a party for Diego, Frida, in her gorgeous Tehuana dress, begins to sing folksongs and causes a sensation. After that, she paints a striking wedding portrait of herself and Diego, adorned with a tiny bird carrying a lavender banderole as in Mexican folk art. At her painting’s first exhibition, young viewers see the proud artist wearing a red shawl and ancient jade necklaces, her hair braided with gold. ¡Viva Frida!
2010, Ages 5 to 9 


Check it out from your library using the library catalog. Donate to an improved Sebastopol Regional Library here.

Recommended by: Barbara Talcroft
Barbara Talcroft reviews children’s books professionally for childrenslit.com and for Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database.  She has a Master’s degree in International Children’s Literature.  She also has many years’ experience as a teacher.  Barbara is one of the founders of LANTERN and its past chairperson.

The Noisy Paint Box
Barb Rosenstock
Illustrations by Mary Grandpre
 
June’s an art month in Sonoma County, so let’s meet artist Vassily Kandinsky and his astonishing abstract paintings. When studious young Vasya (born in Moscow, 1866) is given a paint box by his aunt, he soon discovers that the colors make sounds--“What a noisy paint box!”--while music makes him see colors dancing. Vasya begins painting swashes and splotches of brilliant hues, though his family doesn’t understand. After trying a law career, Kandinsky breaks free, moves away, painting what he hears and feels, offering to the world pictures that make their colors sing. Grandpre's illustrations capture with cool blues the atmosphere of Vasya’s youth in old Russia and later, vivid colors swirling and racing through his mind: cobalt and crimson, emerald, saffron and charcoal. People asked: “What does it mean?” Vasya had become a pioneer of abstract art! An endnote explains Kandinsky’s sensory perceptions, known as “synesthesia,” and reproduces four of his spectacular paintings.
2014, Ages 6 to 10

Check it out from your library using the library catalog. Donate to an improved Sebastopol Regional Library here.

Recommended by: Barbara Talcroft
Barbara Talcroft reviews children’s books professionally for childrenslit.com and for Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database.  She has a Master’s degree in International Children’s Literature.  She also has many years’ experience as a teacher.  Barbara is one of the founders of LANTERN and its past chairperson.