Jeanette Winter is a celebrated picture book creator whose acclaimed works include The Snow Man; The Little Owl & the Big Tree: A Christmas Story; Oil; The Secret Project; and Diego, all written by Jonah Winter, and her own Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia; Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan; and Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg's Call to Save the Planet, which has been translated into twenty-one languages.
* "Simple, folk-style paintings show Matisse in a wheelchair in a
studio amid his collages; in a quiet visual cue, a plant with
oversize leaves suggests inspiration for their big, organic shapes.
He continues to create until his death, another moment Winter
handles gracefully.... Old age can be fertile and useful, Winter
implies; disability doesn't mean the end of creating, and triumph
is possible where only sadness could have been foreseen. All of
these messages lie obliquely in the text, but even readers who
don't dig that deep will share Matisse's joy."-- "Publishers
Weekly, May 27, 2013, *STARRED REVIEW"
"In her extensive picture-book-biography oeuvre, Winter has proven
to be particularly attuned to selecting the just-right elements of
her subjects' complex lives while making them both accessible to
and readily understood by young children.... Winter both describes
and employs Matisse's signature, late-career technique of
brilliantly colored, hand-painted, cut-paper compositions. She
enlivens the simple text with liberal yet judicious quotes from
Matisse's letters and comments from contemporaries. This is a
beautifully designed book that will certainly connect with
readers...the book is a charming introduction to a widely
reproduced, child-friendly artist, one that children will assuredly
encounter and affirmingly embrace."-- "Kirkus Reviews, June
2013"
* "Masterful picture-book biographer Winter (The Watcher, 2011)
offers an elegant, accessible portrait of expressive artist Henri
Matisse.... As an old man, Matisse becomes ill, and the book turns
a stylistic corner, spending the balance of its pages exploring the
changes in his circumstances and the subsequent development of his
medium and his genius. Unable to paint, he begins cutting shapes
from paper and dives into the process, allowing his shapes to grow
with his imagination. And the book adapts in turn, the imagery now
sprawling across pages, filling the space with rich color in
exuberant compositions.... With a gentle narrative dotted with
quotes from the artist himself, luminous illustrations, and a warm,
celebratory spirit, this exemplary picture-book biography delivers
a clear, sensitive portrait of the whole man, story and soul
alike."-- "Booklist, June 1, 2013, *STARRED REVIEW"
"Winter captures the joy that Matisse found in cut paper, both
through her acrylic and cut-paper illustrations and through quotes
from his letters. The images are evocative of his art, with bright
colors and rounded shapes.... The author addresses his death with a
light touch.... Libraries with demand for picture-book biographies
and art history will want to add this well-done title to their
collections."-- "School Library Journal, June 1, 2013"
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