Review by Booklist Review
Ruth Asawa grew up working on her family's farm in Southern California and attending schools where teachers encouraged her artistic talent. But during WWII, she and other Japanese Americans were taken away to internment camps. Later, she studied art at a progressive college and visited Mexico, where she learned looped-wire basket-making techniques, which would become the basis of her innovative hanging sculptures. Asawa married and moved back to California. Working and raising a family in San Francisco, she became known for designing many sculptural fountains and championing art education for children. This picture book's text provides a serviceable introduction to the artist's life, though several details are unclear and certain phrases, such as horse-drawn leveler and educating the whole person, are left for adult readers to explain. While the illustrations are uneven, some are visually strong, and others capture the intricacy of Asawa's looped-wire sculptures, which also appear in black-and-white photos on an appended page. Libraries with strong arts collections may want to include this picture-book biography of a notable American sculptor.--Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-A serviceable introduction to artist and educator, Ruth Asawa. She was primarily a sculptor, known for her work with looped wire and public fountains, but she was also, at heart, an educator who believed in the importance of teaching and sharing art with children. The physical environment, regardless of how beautiful or bleak, was always an influential factor on Asawa's art; she studied, from a very young age, the lines, shapes, and empty space that make up the world. Asawa was also influenced by the adults in her life, many of whom became teachers and mentors, offering encouragement and guidance throughout the years. Van Wagoner's illustrations effectively evoke the mood of the narrative, brighter colors reflecting her more carefree youth on a farm in California, and then later, more muted, darker tones for World War II when she and her family were forced into internment camps. Images and perspectives from her youth and adulthood adroitly complement the straightforward, expository text. VERDICT This is a solid choice for picture book biography collections.-Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA © Copyright 2018. 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
Schoettler traces the artistic journey of Japanese American sculptor Ruth Asawa, from her childhood years (partially spent in an internment camp) to her eventual public commissions for fountains around San Francisco. Like Asawa's giant looped-wire sculptures, Van Wagoner's illustrations skillfully play with light and shadow. Combined, text and illustrations suggestively capture the uniqueness of Asawa's art while deftly exploring the ways her experiences influenced it. Author's note appended. (c) Copyright 2019. 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
Ruth Asawa's life emphasizes the values of perseverance and creativity in the face of extreme adversity.During World War II, Ruth's family is rounded up and sent to internment camps, separated from their farm where Ruth grew up and found her first artistic inspiration. Still, she finds opportunities to study art and develop her vision, work she continues in adulthood as she discovers how to bend wire and make "sculptures of wire and air"one of her signature creations. Others include fountains in San Francisco and a park to commemorate the internment camps. Declarative, straightforward text takes readers through her life, lacking, though, any warmth and details that would have breathed life into the story of this visionary artist. Instead, well-researched information will serve as useful educational material, including the backmatter, which offers photos to complement the realistic illustrations, rendered in dark tones throughout the book. Ruth often appears in green amid seas of brown and gray clothing worn by the families in the internment camps, helping her to stand out. Descriptions of life in the camp are sparse, limited to one double-page spread that mentions art class but depicts barbed wire, lines, and barracks as well as interior accommodations that resemble a child's room in a home.A biography that seeks to illuminate the life of an artistic genius but offers instead an enumeration of details about her experiences. (author's note, list of public sculpture) (Picture book/biography. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
