.Through Georgia's Eyes [Hardcover]

Rachel Victoria Rodriguez (Author), Julie Paschkis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: February 7, 2006 | Age Range: 5 - 8 years | Lexile Measure: 450L (What's this?)

A gorgeous, evocative biography of one of America’s most beloved artists.

 

Georgia O’Keeffe saw the world differently from most people. As a child she roamed the prairie with a sketch pad in her hand, struggling to capture on paper what she saw all around her. At art school she learned to speak in paint on canvas.

 

But Georgia felt confined by city life. She longed for vast expanses of space, and she found it in the red hills and silent deserts of New Mexico.

Lyrical and vivid, this is a portrait of an exceptional artist, a woman whose eyes were open to the wideness and wonder of the world.

 

Through Georgia's Eyes is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Editorial Reviews

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.

From Booklist

*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 Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 5 - 8 years
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition edition (February 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805077405
• ISBN-13: 978-0805077407
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > Art

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I love "Through Georgia's Eyes" May 11, 2006

By J. Crotty

Format:Hardcover

My sister recommended the book to me and I bought it for myself and all of my friends with children. Everyone loves it! The illustrations are beautiful and draw children into the story about Georgia O'Keeffe's life and accomplishments. It encourages children to be creative and value their individuality -- and naturally leads to conversations about the importance of seeing and appreciating the colors and beauty around us, taking pride in our individual talents, and exploring our creativity. I highly recommend this book. Buy it for your friends with children too. They'll appreciate it!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting Introduction to the "Faraway" Place April 20, 2006

By happyharriston

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings have always captivated me. As a college student, I had a poster print of one of her paintings---a sinuous sandstone fissure---pressed on to a cheap foamboard backing, and toted it around from dormitory room to apartment to apartment until it was gouged and beaten up. Something about O'Keeffe's color palette, and her eye for natural lines of beauty, provoked within me a stillness even in unstill times.

Somehow Rachel Rodriguez and Julie Paschkis have succeeded in conveying the contemplative beauty at the heart of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings and life. The prose is spare and reflective, mimicking the cadences of the natural world: "A canyon calls her. From the bottom at dusk she sees a long line of cows above, black lace against a dusky sky." The illustrations, cut-paper collages, mate the vibrant intensity of O'Keeffe's artistic vision with the simplicity and wonder of a child's.

The first time I visited New Mexico and marveled at the quality of the light at daybreak and sunset, I couldn't help but wonder whether Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings had perfectly captured colors that are indescribable, or her paintings had so colored my perception that I saw the world through her eyes. This book brought a slice of that warm southwestern sunshine into my gray northwestern spring.

I highly recommend "Through Georgia's Eyes." It is simply enchanting.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The essential O'Keeffe April 18, 2006

By Hedy Fischer

Format:Hardcover

Rachel Rodriguez and Julie Paschkis have teamed up beautifully and sensitively to glean the essence of Georgia O'Keeffe's life and paintings. Rodriguez writes almost in a haiku-like prose: simple yet distilling O'Keeffe's life and work to its heart and soul. The book should be a delight to children to read and be read to and encourage young and old alike to follow their dreams.