Customer Reviews

Action Jackson (Single Titles)

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When modern art is brought to the table, the question for the untrained is quite often: Is this art? What makes art? Can I do this? For such questions, answers always vary. It is art if you think it is art even if it may not be good art. The final consensus is that it is art if it challenges and sustains. Such art is universally held to be art.

Early on, modern art broke tradition, broke stereotypes, and set the art world on its heels. Until this time artists tried to capture a realistic experience--people, objects, landscapes--and put them on canvas. The moderns were the first to ignore the boundaries of the canvas. In fact, iconoclasts that they were, they acknowledged the confines of the canvas and its two-dimensional world and started experimenting with new techniques. The Impressionistic painters were the first, then the Post-Impressionistic painters went jumps ahead. Instead of painting broad realistic pictures, they began defying shapes, colors, time.

Jackson Pollock represents one segment of this new modern art, that which is called "action painting," or "spatter painting." This book, "Action Jackson," details Jackson's technique of creating art and making the viewer feel and appreciate his vision and told simply enough for a child to understand.

How did Jackson work? He lay out a huge canvas on the floor of his studio, studied it, then spattered house paint across it--directly from the can, from a stick, a brush. He worked over a series of days to get everything just right.

His vision was to lay out colors and patterns and the intermixing of colors and patterns to create a canvas that spoke of something more cosmic than a bowl of apples. For Jackson the process of painting said as much as the final product. This book beautifully conveys the idea of his vision and his process and his final product. I never dreamed a writer and an illustrator could capture the essence of Pollock's work in one thin children's book, but this most definitely does.

Perhaps the success of this book in capturing Jackson's style and work earned it an Honor Award in the Robert F. Siebert contest, and a New York Times Best Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. "Action Jackson" was published in 2002. Jackson Pollock died in a car crash in 1956.

Award winning authors, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan introduce a whole new generation to the brillance of painter, Jackson Pollock as they focus on just two months in the artist's life, and the creation of one of his most famous paintings, No. 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist). Based on firsthand accounts from friends and family, and often using the painter's own words and quotes, this well researched and enlightening picture book biography lets the reader get into Pollock's head, hear his thoughts, feel his energy and joy as he works, and actually peek over his shoulder as he paints. "An athlete with a paintbrush, he uses his whole body to make the painting. Layers build with each gesture, new colors emerging, blending, and disappearing into the wet surface. He swoops and leaps like a dancer, paint trailing from a brush that doesn't touch the canvas..." Their eloquent and lyrical prose is engaging and complemented by Robert Andrew Parker's bold, bright, and busy watercolors. Together word and art paint a dazzling and evocative portrait of the artist, his work, and his times. "Some people will be shocked when they see what he has created. Some Angry. Some confused. Some excited. Some filled with a happiness they can hardly explain. But everyone will agree- Jackson Pollock is doing something original, painting in a way that no one has ever seen before..." Perfect for youngsters 7-11, Action Jackson includes a short biographical sketch at the end to augment the story and fascinating notes and sources about his life and paintings. This is non-fiction at its very best. Kudos to Greenberg, Jordan, and Parker

I am am Elementary Art teacher and I use this book in my classroom. The children love the story. I personally like how the children can get into the world of "Action Jackson" without knowing the actions of Jackson.

This book is an unusual children's book and about a character whose artwork will appeal to children. Although his life is not an uplifting story, the book picks up on the important parts and gives a feeling for what "Action Jackson" was all about. His freedom to create what he wanted and put his feeling on canvas is an important message to children who need to know that there are many way to be creative. That is it is OK to put their feeling into their art without worrying about whether it is "right" or "good". It is a quiet book about an artist who was quiet but whose life was certainly active as was his art.

This book is so very well done -- lots of biographical facts woven into a beautifully illustrated story from the most peaceful and productive phase of Pollock's life. Just right for younger elementary school students -- and also good for older ones when you add the fuller biography in the back. A really wonderful book about an important artist and about making art.

Action Jackson
By Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
2007, Square Fish, Holtzbrink Publishers
Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

Review by Debra Louise Scott

This is an "imagined" biography of the artist Jackson Pollock. The narrative is lyrical, almost poetic, as the authors describe what they imagine would have been going through Pollock's mind as he created his improvisational abstracts. The words made me want to pick up my own dusty art supplies and throw some paint around to try to capture the song of a bird or the intersections between the trees.

This would be an excellent book for a children's art class, to encourage them to put their whole selves into their work and not be tied to what they think the adult wants them to create.

At the back of the book is an actual biography of Pollock, a section on notes and sources, and a bibliography for more information. I would recommend that the teacher or parent have a little familiarity with his work before picking this one up to read to the children.

This is a non fiction book about a painter named Jackson Pollock. Jackson Pollock was the first painter to do an abstract painting. He paints different than other painters. He lays out his canvas on the ground instead of on the wall or on an easel. He does not touch the canvas with his brush instead he paints with his whole body and lets it drip off the brush wherever it goes and he doesnt know where his pictures comes from. I think any kids interested in art would like this book. My favorite part of the book was when he started dancing with the brush in his hand and it dripped everywhere. Kids ages 5 - 7 would like this book, both boys and girls.

Reviewed by Mensan Katie, age 6

This is a wonderful picture book in which the two writers and one illustrator imagine what it was like for Jackson Pollack to think about and then create one of his paintings -- specifically, "Number One, 1950 (Lavender Mist)." It's fascinating to watch Jackson go into "action" as he twists and turns his body in order to better throw paint on the canvas and continue the "line" he seeks. It's also fascinating to read about the influences on Jackson (Indian sand painting, for one). The authors imagine with great insight and respect and create a wonderful book. I particularly like turning one of the final pages and encountering the painting that Jackson works on throughout the book: very dramatic.

This is an amazing book--I feel I'm right there with Jackson Pollock in his barn studio as he lays his huge canvas on the floor and begins to paint. His painting is like a "dance" as he works from all angles and perspectives, and the end result is what he calls "energy and motion made visible." The text is lyrical and mesmerizing and the watercolor illustrations complement the text beautifully. The source notes at the end of the book add additional depth to the biography, and I think this is a book for all ages. Highly Recommended!

Brush of Words
By Thanh Thi
This book is amazing in all forms. I really enjoyed reading it but I was more astonish on how amazing the art work was. I will admit, it seem as if the writer was more focus on his artwork than he was in his story but the point did get across. You really don't see many books these days that can capture the art of water coloring and paint and putting it together in an amazing book. I love how he drew the characters and their expressions in such a detail way. This book really does come to life by the artwork. I felt as if each one of the picture should be hanging in a museum. In the end I really did enjoy this book and it is very easy reading but with so much meaning.