Because Barbara Barbara Cooney paints her world

As a child, Barbara Cooney and her family spent each summer in Maine, surrounded by the beautiful landscape and the sea. Back home in New York, she watched her mother paint pictures and practiced making her own. As an adult, she decided to become an illustrator. "And because Barbara did whatever she set her mind to" (a phrase often repeated within the text), she started illustrating children's books. Color printing was expensive in the mid-twentieth century, so her publisher initially limited her to creating black-and-white illustrations, though she longed to use colors. But after Chanticleer and the Fox, her first book featuring full-color art, won the Caldecott Medal, her picture books featured lively, colorful paintings. Like the main character in her Miss Rumphius, Cooney spent her later years living by the sea, traveling, and making the world a more beautiful place. Mackenzie succeeds in conveying a strong sense of Cooney's childhood as well as her approach to her work, her children, and her guiding principles. Created with graphite, watercolor, and gouache, Ewen's lovely illustrations capture the spirit of Cooney's art. The narrative flows well and will intrigue many adult readers as well as children, particularly those familiar with Cooney's timeless picture books.