From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:19:26 -0500

Today we start our discussion of books for children and young adults about art and artists.

>From fact to fiction, many books for children and teens have explored
art, artists, and the artistic process. There are informative biographies, illuminating novels, inspiring picture books, and a number of how-to (or in the case of Mark Gonyea's "Complicated Doesn't Make It Good," how NOT to) guides to creative visual expression. We'll spend the first half of June looking at treatments of art and artists in books for children and teens.


What books come to mind when you think of literature for youth about art and artists?

For me, two that I think of immediately are by the same author: E.L. Konigsburg: From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (which I believe was mentioned by at least one person in our last discussion), and The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place. I think Outcasts in particular offers a lot to think about the creative process, and of course the critical question (in that book) of what IS art?

The same yeara s Outcasts (2004), there was a nonfiction book that struck me as quite a fascinating companion work: Art Against the Odds:
>From Slave Quits to Prison Paintings by Susan Goldman Rubin. THat book,
about outsider art and artists, might have featured the uncles in Outcasts had they been real.

But I can also think of countless memorable biographies: Jeanette Winter's My Name Is Georgia, Jonah Winter's Frida . . ., both of which, in their spareness and eloquence, capture essential elements about each artists life and work.

What books do you appreicate when it comes to their treatments of art, and why?

Megan





Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706

ph: 608-262-9503 fax: 608-262-4933

schliesman at education.wisc.edu www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Tue 06 Jun 2006 08:19:26 AM CDT