Review by Booklist Review
Though careful, precise strokes of black-and-white scratchboard art first established her as a professional illustrator, it was in the glories of color that renowned author-illustrator Barbara Cooney found her true inspiration. For her portrait of the beloved two-time Caldecott medalist, award-winning picture-book biographer Kunkel chooses a spare, poetic style; her lyrical language is as simple and yet as evocative as Cooney's distinctive use of color. Reserving specifics about the artist's life and accomplishments for her comprehensive afterword, Kunkel focuses instead on the development of the artist's vision: how Cooney chose to follow her own muse, drawing inspiration from small daily moments and enlightening travel experiences deeply observed. In jewel-hued, richly detailed spreads and vignettes, Stadtlander's charming, stylized art beautifully evokes the nuanced magic of Cooney's resonant style. Concluding with a poignant note by Cooney's son, this compelling profile is a perfect companion for readers discovering the works of this inspired storyteller who followed her own path and always did something to make it more beautiful.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Quiet gouache spreads with an appropriately folk-art feel give a sense of meditative calm to this picture book biography of two-time Caldecott Medalist Barbara Cooney (1917--2000). Burke Kunkel (Make Way) describes how Cooney's love of art bloomed early, fostered by a mother who was herself an artist, and that her childhood summers consisted of leaving "the city for the sea.... Summer is Maine." After she attends art school, publishers demand that Cooney work only in black-and-white scratchboard art--until the beauty of a rooster in her family's farmyard inspires her to produce a story, "in five simple colors," that turns out to be a success. Travel fills the next years, captured by Stadtlander (What Music!) in dramatic landscapes that include France, Greece, and Mexico. As Cooney ages, her focus turns to a final project: a new library for the Maine town where she lives. "Books close, then open again.// We do not always know the next story," concludes musing text as an adult and a child share a book at bedtime, which Cooney fans will recognize as Miss Rumphius. The contemplative portrait captures an artist who reveled in Earth's brilliance and who kept her promise, per an afterword, "to make the world more beautiful." Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author's note and selected bibliography conclude. Ages 3--7. Author's agent: Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Agency. Illustrator's agent: Anne Moore Armstrong, Bright Agency. (Aug.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
From the Brooklyn hotel room in which she was born to the Maine coast where she spent many years, Barbara Cooney (1917-2000) sought color and light, which Kunkel adopts as her leitmotif. Cooney's merchant father's fondness for "numbers ticking steadily away in black and white" is contrasted with her artist mother's encouragement to create, and with the vibrancy and freedom of Maine, where the family summered. Working as an illustrator, Cooney was initially confined to black and white, dutifully plying the scratchboard "because there [were] houses to heat and children to feed." Taking her subject's simplicity of prose as a model, Kunkel does not name Cooney's oeuvre, instead matter-of-factly folding in references to it. In one spread Cooney is transfixed by the beauty of a rooster; in the next, she creates illustrations for what readers may recognize as the Caldecott-winning Chanticleer and the Fox. Liberated by its "huge success," Cooney traveled widely, Miss Rumphius-like, "soaking up sun, and color, and light" and eventually settling in Maine. Directly echoing Miss Rumphius, Kunkel tells readers that "there [was] still one thing [Cooney] must do": raise money to build a new library in her adopted hometown. Working in gouache, Stadtlander emulates the illustrator's flat, folk art-esque style, her palette and compositions harmonizing with Cooney's. Her penultimate spread depicts an adult reading Miss Rumphius to a child, making the connection between author and creation in quiet affirmation of the titular "world more beautiful." Appended with an author's note, a brief bibliography, and an afterword by Cooney's daughter. Vicky SmithNovember/December 2024 p.112 (c) Copyright 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
The life of a great children's book author and illustrator is set in context. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in the Hotel Bossert, to a father who favored her brothers, Barbara Cooney (1917-2000) bonded with her mother over the art that would become her eventual career. Restricted for many years to black-and-white etchings after becoming a picture-book illustrator (an editor told her she lacked a sense of color), Cooney excelled when, after about 40 books, she let her colors flow upon the page. She was an inveterate traveler whose heart was most aligned with Maine, where she'd spent summers as a child. All this culminated in her work to restore a library there, shortly before her death. Kunkel's text eschews the rote biographical format so common in other books, unafraid to muse that "a life is more than a timeline, dates set down in black and white." Cooney's own life is thus complemented with consistently inventive descriptions of her adventures ("Barbara drives a yellow Volkswagen across a brown landscape, soaking up sun, and color, and light"). The result is a celebration of the living of a good life rather than a focus on her successes in her chosen field. Meanwhile, the book's gouache art evokes Cooney's own without replicating it. The delicate lines and colors serve as a spectacular homage in and of themselves. A delight to eye and ear alike, this biography provides an abundant dignity and beauty worthy of its subject. (author's note, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
