Washington Post Book Reviews
For You
Wednesday November 17, 2010
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SOAR, ELINOR!
Tami Lewis Brown. Illustrated by FranÁois Roca
Farrar Straus Giroux
ISBN 978 0 374 37115 9
NA pages
$16.99
Reviewed by Abby McGanney Nolan
This isn't the first children's book to celebrate the use of New York City landmarks for astounding and illegal stunts (see, for example, "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers"), but "Soar, Elinor!" also presents a pioneering teenage girl. Some people were born to fly, and Elinor Smith (1911-2010) was one of them. In her assured picture-book debut, Tami Lewis Brown introduces Elinor as a 6-year-old begging to ride in a biplane. Her supportive parents let her begin flying lessons at age 10, and she became the youngest American pilot six years later. Francois Roca's oil paintings capture her sunny determination as well as the lure of the wide skies and the open cockpit.
Within three months of getting her license, Elinor took on a dare -- to fly under one of the East River bridges -- and quadrupled it by attempting all four. Alongside Roca's meticulous illustrations of the bridges, Brown describes Elinor's careful planning and the factors she had to consider, from speed, distance and weight to tide tables and each bridge's design. Her in-the-air solution for last-minute river traffic makes for high drama. Fortunately for Elinor, she got only a short suspension for her lawbreaking and went on to enough further aerial feats to merit a sequel to this book.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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ART & MAX
David Wiesner
Clarion
ISBN 978 0 618 75663 6
NA pages
$17.99
Reviewed by Kristi Jemtegaard
Is this a story about finding your inner lizard? A meditation on the value of friendship? Or a zany display of artistic bravado? Is David Wiesner -- one of only two illustrators to have won the Caldecott Medal three times -- feeling like he's painted himself into an artistic corner with his superbly rendered hyper-realistic fantasies? Is he creating meta-picture books that speak equally to adults and kids? Young Max (think small, green, enthusiastic) wants to paint and constantly interrupts Art (think large, spiky, smug) as he works on a portrait. When Max asks Art what he should paint, Art says, "You could paint me," and Max, taking him at his word, colorizes him a la Jackson Pollock. From realism (Max stands in front of his own blank canvas) to pen and ink (Art drinks a glass of water and turns himself into a line drawing) to Chuck Close pointillism, Wiesner deconstructs and reconstructs our notions of art. Will kids like "Art & Max"? Probably. Will kids get it? Possibly. Will art teachers love it? Undoubtedly. Is this a picture book ... or a book about pictures? And is the Pink Floyd "Atom Heart Mother" album cover a casual decoration or a carefully placed clue? Visual allusion or artful illusion -- it all comes down to what you bring to the experience.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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