Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* One of the most important artists of the twentieth century, African American painter Jacob Lawrence found early inspiration in the rhythms, shapes, scenes, and Matisse-like colors of Harlem, the setting for this vivid glimpse of his early adolescent life. While Lawrence makes things with his hands in an after-school program at the Utopia Children's House in Harlem, readers are treated with glimpses of his 1930s neighborhood: street vendors hawking wares, men playing chess and checkers, mothers hurrying to work, and more. Lawrence called his art style dynamic cubism, and, working in the same style, illustrator Myers has captured the vibrant energy, bold hues, and expressionist shapes of Lawrence's work. Rhodes-Pitts, meanwhile, contributes colorful, energetic text, writing in the opening double-page spread, In the morning, Jake watches the sun wake up. He makes a big stretch, and the sun stretches, too. This artful examination of an artist's early inspirations includes a brief biography of Lawrence and reproductions of panels from his celebrated Migration Series. In a poignant touch, the book produced in conjunction with Lawrence's exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to the memory of the illustrator's late father, the beloved author Walter Dean Myers. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: When an acclaimed author-illustrator team collaborate on a subject who is getting his due at a major museum, you are going to see heightened awareness and interest.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-A picture book biography on renowned painter Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). Lawrence moved to Harlem in 1930 to rejoin his mother, who had moved to New York three years earlier in search of work. Lawrence was 13 years old and already a gifted artist. Stirred by the sights, sounds, and bustling movement he saw and heard in his new neighborhood, which was abuzz with the creativity of the Harlem Renaissance, he produced bold, vivid art; fortunately, he had the opportunity to attend an after-school arts program in which he honed his considerable talents. Inspired by Lawrence's early years and his deep desire to represent the people and community around him, Rhodes-Pitts has written a clear, simple tale, told in present tense and filled with colorful imagery. Myers's art has a looser, sketchier quality than Lawrence's more graceful figures, but both artists demonstrate a passion for vibrant, eye-popping colors that powerfully capture the African American experience. Myers's illustrations are energetic and flowing, though facial features-absent in Lawrence's work-are less successful. Several of Lawrence's paintings from his famous Migration series are interspersed throughout and identified in the back matter. There is also a short biographical piece about Lawrence and his work. VERDICT Creative youngsters may be motivated to craft works about their own neighborhoods. Pair this with Patricia MacLachlan's The Iridescence of Birds (Roaring Brook, 2014), about the boyhood of another 20th-century master, Henri Matisse, for an artist-themed lesson or storytime.-Carol Goldman, Queens Library, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Myers brings vibrant life to a poetic story of African American painter Jacob Lawrence's youth growing up in 1930 Harlem. Myers's art, a true representation of Lawrence's own style, invites young readers into the era and place, depicting everyday activities such as men playing checkers on a stoop and preachers shouting in the street. A biographical note and reproductions are appended. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Coinciding with the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition of Jacob Lawrence's Migration series, this title imagines the artist as a young teenager experiencing his own move from Philadelphia to Harlem in 1930. With just a few sentences per spread, historian Rhodes-Pitts describes Jake's reactions to the colors and textures of once-familiar furnishingsthings he has been separated from since his mother sought work in New York three years earlier: "His feet sink deep into the thick blue rug. When his toes touch the ground, it's like a sky upside down." Perhaps to suggest that the adolescent is already thinking artistically or that he is noticing his stimulating milieu, Myers inserts sly visual references to 20th-century painters. In addition to Matisse and Mir, he pays homage to O'Keeffe as the boy peers into "Starlight Night" through his window. Vibrant hues and diagonal elements animate the straightforward accounts of street-corner preachers and checkers players. The author adopts a more lyrical tone as Jake visits the Utopia Children's House for art classes after school. In the penultimate scene, Myers depicts the young man building his neighborhood inside a shoebox with figures that foreshadow the compositions in the final spread of five Migration scenes. Comprising 24 pages, the narrative closes a bit abruptly; nonetheless, this is a dynamic and creative introduction to a groundbreaking artist and an iconic collection. (biographical note, selected works, museum trustees) (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
