From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4–OKeeffes visual voice was unique and bold for a woman born in 1887. Rodríguez gently tells this inspirational artists story, not with hard facts on a rigid time line, but with quiet simplicity. The book begins with her childhood in Wisconsin and art school, then moves on to the canyons of the city and finally out to the expanses of Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. The influence of place on OKeeffe is evident in the brief text. Using short, strong sentences and phrases, the author emphasizes the artists creative force. Paschkis extends the words with the visual simplicity of colorful, cut-paper collages. These beautiful works capture the artists style and the essence of specific works. Readers will feel the openness of Wisconsins rolling prairie as well as the confines of art-school rooms and city canyons. The bold shapes of flowers, skulls, and mountains successfully bring the renowned artists influence into this picture book. The clarity of text and illustrations gives it potential for group enjoyment and individual inspiration. A closing page offers several additional paragraphs on the womans life.
–Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
*Starred Review* K-Gr. 3. Creating a picture-book biography of Georgia O'Keeffe is a daunting project. Beyond the challenge of interpreting O'Keeffe's artwork, Jeanette Winter's
My Name Is Georgia (1998), which used a first-person narrative representing the artist's voice, set a high standard for both art and text. Addressing the same audience, Rodriguez finds her own distinctive way, telling O'Keeffe's story in third person but with great immediacy, using present tense and sentences that are short, direct, and poetic. After describing O'Keeffe's childhood, her goal of becoming an artist, her move from the city to New Mexico, and her bond with the land there, the author invites readers to let the artist "show you the world as she sees it." The final page expands on the story to give a more standard, detailed account of the artist's life. Paschkis creates vivid illustrations by using painted and cut papers to form collages representing the artist, her world, and her work. These illustrations vary in palette and composition as the setting changes from the Wisconsin countryside to the New York cityscape to the hills and deserts of the Southwest. O'Keefe grows up and grows old, but her satisfaction in expressing herself through her art is constant. Written and illustrated with directness and sensitivity, this is a fresh, original portrait of the artist.
Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
