Girl on a Motorcycle

Viking (Penguin Random House)

(pub. 9.8.2020)  

48 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor

       Amy Novesky
       and illustrator:

       Julie Morstad  

 

C haracter: Anne-France Dautheville

O verview: 

      

"One day, a girl gets on her motorcycle and rides away. She wants to wander the world.  

To go ...

Elsewhere.

This is the true story of the first woman to ride a motorcycle around the world alone. Each place has something to teach her. Each place is beautiful. And despite many flat tires and falls, she learns to always get back up and keep riding."

T antalizing taste: 

     "A pink sunset is a gift to the lone girl on a motorcycle, on the way to Istanbul.

      Here, a bridge connects the east to the west. The girl and her motorcycle cross from one continent to another. The sea sparkles below her.

     One day she will write a book. She will tell the world: It is hard. It is hot. I learned a lot. 

     Children run after her bike, shout. Hello! Hello! Mister! Mister!

     Some are curious, others shy. Yes, I am a girl.

      Children run after her bike, shout. Goodbye! Goodbye!"

And something more: The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books' starred review touches on the poignancy of this beautifully written and illustrated book reaching us at this time (or any time):  “This eminently sharable title arrives as soothing balm, stirring reminders of the world beyond household walls and offering images onto which each can attach a personal dream: Where is my ‘Elsewhere’? Whom would I meet? What would I see?” 

    I asked my talented author friend, Amy Novesky, if she would share a few thoughts about writing this book, and she kindly wrote:  

    "I love to travel, but I am a very nervous traveler. That’s one of the reasons I was drawn to this story; Anne-France was strong, but she wasn’t fearless. Before she left on her very first trip, she was nervous, couldn’t sleep. What’s that saying about being brave? If you’re not afraid, you can’t be brave.

Speaking of being brave, I felt I couldn't write this story without experiencing what it's like to ride on a motorcycle, and it had been years since I'd been on one. So, I bid on and won at my son's school auction a motorcycle ride with one of the teachers, beating out all of the adventurous dads. It was terrifying and exhilarating, and I discovered how much I love my spine."

Amy's last note in the book is powerful: "What I  wish for all young citizens of the world, for every human being on this incredible planet, is the ability and freedom to travel, to wander, and to lust for elsewhere, to meet people, to experience through their own eyes and hearts that the world is beautiful and good. Because I believe, dear reader, that it is."

Mary Blair's Unique Flair

The Girl Who Became
One of the Disney Legends

Disney Press
(pub. 8.13.2019) 
 40 pages

A True Tale with
A Cherry On Top   

A uthor:  Amy Noveksy

 and illustrator:  Brittney Lee
 
C haracter: Mary Blair

O verview from jacket flap: 

     "Mary Browne Robinson was a girl who loved color. This love stayed with her through childhood and launched her career, which included working as an artist at the Walt Disney Studios! Mary Brown Robinson became Mary Blair, and she created art for films like Cinderella and attractions like "it's a small world" before eventually being named one of the Disney Legends.
      All of this, a dream come true, for a girl who loved color."

T antalizing taste: 

     "Despite how fun it was to work at Disney, it wasn't Mary's dream come true - yet - so she quit. 
     
      She preferred to stay home and paint.
     
      But when Mary heard that Walt was taking artists, including [her husband], on a trip to South America, she asked Mr. Disney to take her along.
    
      Mary grabbed her suitcase full of paints and she flew from Burbank to Brazil.
   
       To Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru!
   
        Mary had never seen such bright and happy colors before.
   
        Verde and azul. Amarelo, amarillo. Laranja, anaranjado. Vermellio, rojo, and rosa. Lilas, Lavanda, roxo, morad. Marrom, marron.  Cinza,  gris, preto, negro."

And something more:  I appreciate that Mary Blair's Unique Flair included a shout-out to the editorial team at Disney Press: "Special thanks ... to Samantha McFerrin, Grace Lee, and Winnie Ho, for their belief in and hard work on this book."  I've often thought books should include the names of not only the author and illustrator, but also the editor and art director and others in the publishing house who create the book.  

The book's notes also include a special thanks to "Mary Blair's niece, Maggie Richardson, for her kindness, generosity, and assistance with this book."  At the back of the book, Maggie Richardson writes that "from the moment Amy Novesky came to my home to look at photos and art and listen to my stories, I knew she was someone who would understand my aunt Mary."  Amy Novesky kindly shared with me the story of one of Maggie's treasured visits with her aunt:

"Imagine having Mary Blair as your aunt! Little Maggie Richardson loved visiting her colorful aunt. And when Mary was working on the art for Walt Disney’s signature attraction “it’s a small world,” she included her beloved niece in her process, asking her what color she should make the ribbons around the necks of a flock of geese. Maggie doesn’t recall if she chose orange or green, but the illustrator [Brittney Lee] chose orange for the book."

I attended a wonderful presentation by Amy Novesky and Brittney Lee at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, and I loved learning how Brittney was inspired by Mary Blair, as she describes in her Illustrator's Note: "When I attended an exhibit of Mary's 'it's a small world' artwork at the Disney Animation Research Library a few years ago, I was shocked to discover that many of her pieces were created in cut paper! It was so exciting to see how she solved creative problems and expressed herself through colorful bits of paper and vellum. And most important, through those pieces she taught me the value of using a hole punch [instead of painstakingly cutting out tiny circles]! Sometimes the simplest solution is the best."

Cloth Lullaby

The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois

Abrams Books for Young Readers
(published 3.1.2016)
40 pages

A True Tale
with A Cherry On Top 

A uthor: Amy Novesky
and Illustrator: Isabelle Arsenault

C haracters: Louise Bourgeois
                 
O verview from Abrams Books for Young Readers website:

"Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was a world-renowned modern artist noted for her sculptures made of wood, steel, stone, and cast rubber Her most famous spider sculpture, Maman, stands more than 30 feet high.

Just as spiders spin and repair their webs, Louise's own mother was a weaver of tapestries. Louise spent her childhood in France as an apprentice to her mother before she became a tapestry artist herself. She worked with fabric through her career, and this biographical picture book shows how Bourgeois's childhood experiences weaving with her loving, nurturing mother provided the inspiration for her most famous works. With a beautifully nuanced and poetic story, this book stunningly captures the relationship between mother and daughter and illuminates how memories are woven into us all.".

T antalizing taste:

"Louise kept diaries of her days. And in a cloth tent pitched in the garden, she and her siblings would stay till the dark surprised them, the light from the house, and the sound of a a Verdi opera, far away through the trees.

Sometimes, they'd spend the night, and Louise would study the web of stars, imagine her place in the universe, and weep, then fall asleep to the rhythmic rock and murmur of river water.

The river provided flowers and fruit, a lullaby, and a livelihood.

Louise's family restored tapestries - art woven from wool - and the wool loved the tannin-rich water, which cleansed and strengthened it, and allowed it to soak up color."

and something more:  I feel so fortunate to have read, early on, a draft of Amy's amazing book in which she wove together her poetic evocative words. Amy shared with me what inspired her to write this book:  "The inspiration for this book came from a 2004 New York Times article about Louise Bourgeois’s cloth work. I immediately fell in love with her fabric odes, whose colorful graphic and tactile shapes resonated with me, and, I thought would with young readers. But I didn’t find my way into the story until years later when I discovered a monograph of her cloth work at the Sausalito Library. While the book was 12 years in the making (!), I wrote the story in a week."

I heartily concur with the New York Times review: "Novesky's writing is alert to young readers' voracious appetite for the aliveness of language. The story is strewn with beautiful, pleasantly challenging words ('indigo,' 'fragments,' trousseau'), words that have earned the right to make themselves at home in a child's imagination ... Cloth Lullaby is one of the loveliest picture books I've encountered - a tender homage to an extraordinary woman."

Mister and Lady Day

Billie Holiday
and the Dog Who Loved Her

This post joins other
kidlit bloggers on the
Nonfiction Monday Roundup

and also joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Harcourt Children's Books
(Houghton Miffllin Harcourt)

(pub. 6.18.2013) 32 pages

A True Tale with 
A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Amy Novesky
           and Illustrator: Vanessa Brantley Newton

    

C haracter: BILLIE HOLIDAY - jazz singer

O verview from the jacket flap: 

    "The great jazz singer Billie Holiday, known as Lady Day, had fame, style, a distinctive singing voice - and lots of dogs! But a boxer named Mister was the dog she loved most.
     She took good care of Mister, and Mister took good care of her. When the spotlight lit her up like star, Mister was there. When the stage - and her life - went dark, Mister was there. No matter what, Mister gave Lady Day courage.
     But would she have enough courage to sing at the grandest venue of her career? The audience at New York City's Carnegie Hall was expecting great things."

T antalizing taste: 

     "Then, just when her career was at the top, Lady got into trouble. She had to leave home for a year and a day. And Mister couldn't come. Lady knew what it was like to be left, and it made her heartsick. She promised Mister she'd be home soon.

     But when she looked into his sad eyes, she wasn't sure she'd ever see him again.

     While Lady was gone, she wrote letters and knit sweaters. But she did not sing. Singing was about feeling, and she didn't feel a thing."

and something more: The back matter of Mister and Lady Day explains that "Despite achieving fame, Billie's life was not always a happy one.  When she was a girl, her father abandoned her, and her mother worked away from home, leaving Billie behind.  As an adult, she suffered from a drug addiction and, at the peak of her career, was sentenced to one year in prison for drug possession.  While she was gone she refused to sing, because, she said, 'I didn't feel a thing.'  
        But on March 2, 1948, just days after her homecoming, she performed a sold-out show at New York City's prestigious Carnegie Hall before a crowd of thousands ... In spite of her troubles - troubles that would follow her until the day she died at age forty-four - the great Lady Day shone like a star that memorable night." 

      I'm thrilled to share this wonderful book by my friend and amazing writer, Amy Novesky.  As I'm always curious as to why an author chose to write a book a certain way, I asked Amy about her inspiration for Mister and Lady Day. 
        Amy explained, "I wanted to write a picture book about Billie Holiday, but just didn't know how to do it, given that she had a life that involved elements that are not particularly appropriate for kids (prostitution, drug addiction, prison). But when I learned that Billie loved dogs and had many in her life, I knew that I had my story. (I have a beloved pug dog named George). And when I learned that her favorite was a dog named Mister, I had my title, Mister & Lady Day."  (And, by the way, Amy's dog, George, is a sweet funny one...maybe there will be a future book titled George and Amy!) 

Imogen

The Mother of Modernism
and Three Boys

Thiis post is part of Nonfiction Monday hosted today
by Perogies & Gyoza

And joins It's Monday!

What are you reading?

at Teacher Mentor Texts

Cameron + Company

(pub. 12.11.12) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Amy Novesky
       Illustrator: Lisa Congdon

C haracter: Imogen Cunningham

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Flash forward. Imogen is a photographer and a mother. She has her hands full! How does she do it all?  She turns the garden into a wonderland for her three growing boys and a workshop for herself. While she works, her boys play, and Imogen photographs them. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. Photographing her sons leads Imogen to focus on the plants and flowers - most notably her signature magnolia blossoms - for which she will become known."

        

T antalizing taste: 

       "CLICK. Freckled ears and feathered headdresses.
       Glowing birthday cakes. Her three growing boys.
       She photographed her bespectacled father. Her
mother with a crown of silver spoons.
       Imogen found a little beauty in everything."

          

and something more: Last Monday, November 12th, was Imogen Cunningham Day in San Francisco. I was thrilled to attend the book launch party that day for IMOGEN -The Mother of Modernism and Three Boys at a wonderful indie bookstore, Books Inc., in San Francisco.  My writer friend, Amy Novesky, gave a wonderful presentation and shared intriguing anecdotes about Imogen, including meeting one of Imogen's sons, now in his 90s, who also became a photographer. And even the publisher told about a personal connection to Imogen. The founder, Robert Cameron (photographer and publisher of the ABOVE books), actually owned an Imogen photograph.
          My favorite page of the book reads: "And for one hour every afternoon, while the boys napped, Imogen focused on her flowers, including a common magnolia blossom she shot close up." The lovely close-up illustration of Imogen with her camera focused on a blossom echoes the lyrical text.
          The Author's Note includes an inspiring quote from Imogen:

"You can't expect things to be smooth and easy and beautiful. You just have to work, find your way out, and do anything you can yourself."

Georgia In Hawaii

When Georgia O'Keefe Painted
What She Pleased


This post is part of Nonfiction Monday 

hosted today by The Nonfiction Detectives

Harcourt Children's Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

(pub. 3.20.2012)  40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Amy Novesky

     and Illustrator:  Yuyi Morales

C haracter: Georgia O'Keefe

O verview from the jacket flap: 

"Georgia O'Keeffe was famous for painting exactly what she wanted, whether flowers or skulls. Who would ever dare to tell Georgia what to paint? The Hawaiian Pineapple Company tried. Lucky for them, Georgia fell in love with Hawaii. There she painted the beloved green islands, vibrant flowers, feathered fishhooks, and the blue, blue sea. But did she paint what the Pineapple Company wanted most of all?"

T antalizing taste: 

           "And Georgia painted flowers!

         Bird of paradise and philodendron, foot-long heliconia and fragrant plumeria, torch ginger and silver cup, lotus and hibiscus.

         She painted a nana honua that she'd picked by the side of the road. It reminded Georgia of her favorite desert flower, the jimsonweed."

and something more: I had the pleasure of seeing an advance copy of this wonderful book, Georgia in Hawaii, when my writer friend Amy Novesky read another book she wrote about an artist, Me, Frida (Frida Kahlo) at SFMOMA's Family Day last summer.  It's such a thrill to now hold this exquisitely written and beautifully illustrated book. 

         When I recently read this book to my favorite group of second graders at Bacich School, we felt we could almost feel the soft tropical breezes infused with the fragrance of the Hawaiian flowers. Several students wanted to study the flowers illustrated by Yuyi Morales on the inside cover of the book. One girl commented that the vivid red heliconia appears in a Dr. Suess movie. When I asked the students what they learned about the famous artist, Georgia O'Keefe, a boy replied, "That she only painted what she wanted to paint." 

         The Author's Note quotes Georgia O'Keefe: "'If my painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world has given to me ... these paintings are what I have to give ... for what three months in Hawaii gave to me.'" Thank you, Amy, for sharing Georgia's story with us and giving us this delightful lyrical picture book biography of a special time in the artist's life.

Me, Frida

Abrams Books for Young Readers (pub. 10.1.2010)

32 pages

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top
 

A uthor:  AMY NOVESKY

               and Illustrator:  DAVID DIAZ

C haracters:

Frida Kahlo, an artist from Mexico

Diego Rivera, Frida’s husband
                        and an artist from Mexico

O verview from the jacket flap:

    “Like a tiny bird in a big city, Frida Kahlo feels lost and lonely when she first arrives in San Francisco [California in 1930] with her husband, the famous artist Diego Rivera ... Frida wants to be a painter, too.

     But as Frida begins to explore San Francisco on her own, she discovers more than ... beauty, diversity, and exuberance ...  Frida finds the inspiration she needs ...
     Me, Frida is an exhilarating story that encourages young readers to believe in themselves so they can make their own dreams soar."
 

T antalizing taste: 

"She took a ferry across the Golden Gate and walked
in the green headlands high above the ocean.
     For there, she could see the entire glittering
city and all it held, including Diego.  It was small
enough to fit on the wing of a bird.
     For once, Frida felt larger than life.  Me, Frida!
     She felt like she could fly."

and something more:  The Author's Note in the new children's picture book biography, Me, Frida, includes a reproduction of Frida Kahlo's painting, Frieda [as she sometimes spelled her name] and Diego Rivera.  If you ever have the chance, be sure to visit the painting at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (usually displayed on the second floor) and check out the interactive multimedia about Frida Kahlo on the SFMOMA website (in English and Spanish).

     When I was a docent at SFMOMA, I always included this painting in my tours for school groups.  Be sure to compare the size of Frida's shoes and Diego's shoes -- not true to life, but instead echoing Amy Novesky's lyrical text: "She painted Diego big, and she painted herself small, just as the world saw them."  But, as the story shows, Frida felt "larger than life" and her dreams soared.
     For older readers (ages 12 and up), the book Frida !Viva la vida! Long Live Life! (Marshall Cavendish Children) by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand pairs powerful biographical poems with Frida's artwork (23 paintings). Carmen writes about the painting, Frieda and Diego Rivera:

"Wednesday, August 21, 1929

Coyoacan - Today the marriage
between the elephant and a dove...
Frida Kahlo wore
a Tehuana peasant dress
and a rebozo created by the people
for the people
who belong to the people."