Be strong The rise of beloved public art sculptor Nancy Scẖn

Robert McCloskey fans--and picture-book readers acquainted with the classics--will enjoy this introduction to Schön, the sculptor best known for her bronze renditions of the mallards in Make Way for Ducklings (that likewise waddle through Boston's Public Garden). In a brief account of the late-blooming artist's life, Pattison highlights one inspirational moment in particular: seeing children patting a bronze cat in a sculpture garden in Israel. It led Schön to focus on creating public art that would be equally inviting to pat, touch, or sit on, and so, along with the painstakingly crafted ducklings, she has gone on to cast a tortoise and hare in honor of the Boston Marathon, plus dozens of other figures, from prairie dogs to Pooh Bear. In the festive illustrations, she grows from childhood to an exuberant, gray-haired elder, along the way working with McCloskey to make sure the ducklings are posed and placed just so. Endnotes add photos and further details about her work and where to encounter it.

Pattison pays tribute to famed sculptor Nancy Schön in this picture book. The book opens with a brief memory of Nancy Schön's introduction to sculpture at a Halloween party (via a chewing gum-sculpting competition). At a local park, the now grown-up Nancy observes a succession of children touching a beloved bronze statue of a woman cuddling a cat, which sparks her to create something of her own: nine sculpted ducks ("Right then, I saw what I wanted for my art. I wanted my sculptures to be outdoors in parks, where people of all ages could touch and enjoy them"). She becomes temporarily discouraged with her design ("Would she ever get the ducklings right?"), but, with the help of a friend, Nancy is able to finish the ducks and install them at Boston's Public Garden. Pattison's account of Schön's life skips over her early years so quickly that it may leave readers curious about her education in art (her pacing settles down when she arrives at Schön's creation of the ducklings). Davis' illustrations are reminiscent of the statues themselves: bold, with rounded edges and a fullness of life that he captures with rich colors and an absence of outlines. The inclusion of Schön's other artwork rounds out the artist's legacy as a versatile sculptor. An inconsistently paced biography that may still enlighten and inspire young lovers of public art. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.