A Baker's Portrait [Hardcover]

Michelle Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up

Michelin paints portraits that do not flatter her sitters but she learns an enduring lesson when she must paint her kindly aunt and uncle.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Executed in vibrant colors, characters with singularly expressive faces fill the pages of this book, in which Edwards offers a distinctive portrait of a painter of portraits. Michelin insists on putting exactly what she sees on canvas, which gets her into trouble when she renders a study of the mayor's family--warts and all. Her honesty has caused business to fall off, until finally she is asked to catch the likeness of her aunt and uncle, who own a bakery. Michelin is faced with a dilemma: does she portray her rotund uncle and her toothless aunt as they really are? The resourceful painter's solution provides a piquant ending to the tale. As in her Chicken Man , Edwards's old-world setting and underlying message lend this story the feeling of a modern folktale. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-- Michelin is a portrait painter who hasn't had much business since she painted the fat mayor, his warty wife, and their cross-eyed children--just as she saw them. Now her Uncle Ferdinand and Aunt Liliane would like their portraits done, but they are both extremely fat and most of Liliane's teeth are missing. Michelin doesn't want to hurt their feelings, but she can't paint them flatteringly until she spends an evening talking to Ferdinand and learns to see what's inside them rather than their outward appearances. This story is illustrated in oil paintings in a colorful, folk-art style that has a strong European flavor. Nice, but undistinguished. --JoAnn Rees, Sunnyvale Public Library, CA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 1 pages
• Publisher: Lothrop Lee & Shepard; 1st edition (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068809712X
• ISBN-13: 978-0688097127
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,835,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Life-long knitter Michelle Edwards is the award winning author/illustrator of over 13 books for children, including CHICKEN MAN winner of National Jewish Book Award. Her illustrations have appeared in several shows of children's book art including the current "Monsters and Miracles", co-organized by the Skirball Cultural Center and the Eric Carle Museum. She is a monthly feature writer for the Lion Brand Yarn Company newsletter. A KNITTER'S HOME COMPANION is her first adult book.

Michelle was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and grew up in Troy, New York. She studied at the Bazalel Art Academy in Jerusalem and earned an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Iowa. She lives with her family in Iowa City, Iowa.
More information is available at her website wwww.michelledwards.com/