Biographies of Artists

Smith, Emma Bland. Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards : The Making of Make Way for Ducklings. New York: Calkins Creek, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers, 2022.
How do you  become a great writer? How do you become a great artist? By practising, of course. Practising and practising. Over and over and over. When Robert McCloskey, the famed author and illustrator, decided to create a picture book about a family of ducks, he started drawing sketches. But they weren’t very good. He did some research on ducks and tried again, but his sketches still weren’t very good. So he went out and bought a box of ducklings and took them home to live in his studio. You’d think living with ducklings, messy squawking ducklings, would help him know how to create great illustrations. But it wasn’t enough. So he went out and brought home a box of adult ducks. After Mr. McCloskey had practised and practised some more and the ducks really needed to get back outside where they belonged, he was finally satisfied with his pictures. It had taken him six years of researching and writing and drawing to finish his story. But it was worth it. In 1942, Make Way for Ducklings won the Caldecott Award for the most distinguished American children’s picture book! This biography by Smith, illustrated with gouache and coloured pencil drawings by Becca Stadtlander and appended by extensive background information, is highly recommended for students 6 to 10 years old and for anyone of any age who needs encouragement to not give up. Keep practising!

Steptoe, Javaka. Radiant Child: the Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2016.
Brilliant double-page illustrations help tell the true story of a collage-style New York artist who died of a drug overdose in 1988 at the age of only 27. The colour, energy, and detail in Steptoe’s paintings are astonishing.  An afterward tells more about both Basquiat and Steptoe and could be used to start all sorts of discussions on the effect of childhood experiences and the nature of creativity. This sophisticated picture book – winner of the Caldecott Medal – is highly recommended for artists of all ages. [Artists; Caldecott Medal; Creativity; New York (City)]

Dreamer from the Village: the Story of Marc Chagall  by Michelle Markel  (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2005).

Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers: The Life of Marc Chagall in Verse by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen (Mankato, MN: Creative Paperbacks, 2013).
Imaginative poems and explanatory paragraphs accompany illustrations of the artist’s works.

The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert (La Jolla, Calif.: Beach Lane Books, 2014.)
This well-known collage artist explains how she get her ideas and creates her wonderful picture books.

Mao and Me by Chen Jiang Hong (Enchanted Lion Books, 2008).
Writer and artist Chen Jiang Hong tells the story of his Chinese childhood during  the 1960s. The finely detailed pen-and-ink and paint illustrations add emotional power to a quiet, understated memoir of the upheaval created by the Cultural Revolution.

Edward Hopper Paints His World by Robert Burleigh (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2014).

The Noisy Paint Box: the Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art by Barb Rosenstock (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014).

Bogart, Jo Ellen. Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis. Toronto: Tundra Books ; Plattsburgh, N.Y.: Tundra Books of Northern New York, 2002.
Scenes of everyday life by a self-trained artist: horses pulling sleighs, cows grazing in fields, children walking to school, fishing boats on the sea. Maud Lewis – one of Canada’s greatest folk artists – didn’t follow all the rules regarding proportion and perspective. She didn’t include shadows in her scenes of summer. She sometimes painted impossible things, such as flowers on evergreen trees or snowy valleys surrounded by green hills. But all the time, her paintings were full of joy, even though her own life was full of hardship. This biography – illustrated by Mark Lang – isn’t the most well-designed picture book: the font is too small and serious; and the layout doesn’t reflect the happiness of the full-page colourful paintings. But the text is full of information and so the book would be useful as a read-aloud for children eight years old and up. It would be especially valuable as an introduction to a lesson on folk art or a unit on facing adversity with courage.  

Stinson, Kathy. A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis. Vancouver: Greystone Kids/Greystone Books, 2023.
Sunshine in darkness. Joy in the midst of hardship. The story of this Canadian artist from Nova Scotia has been told many times but never more lyrically than in this engaging picture book. Maud Lewis, born in 1903, developed debilitating rheumatoid arthritis as a child. Despite pain and poverty, she spent her life painting cheerful pictures on furniture, walls, windows, scraps of wood and cardboard, and everything else around her. She died in 1970, having never sold any of her work for more than ten dollars. Today, her paintings sell for tens of thousands of dollars. This beautifully designed picture book – with a cheerful font and full-page illustrations by Lauren Soloy – is highly recommended for anyone who enjoys biographies and appreciates excellent writing.

A Bird or Two: a Story about Henri Matisse by Bijou Le Tord (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 1999).

Colourful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse by Marjorie Blain Parker (Dial Books for Younger Readers, 2012).

Matisse’s Garden by Samantha Friendman (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2014).

“One day, the French artist Henri Matisse cut a small bird out of a piece of paper. It looked lonely all by itself, so he cut out more shapes to join it. Before he knew it, Matisse had transformed his walls into larger-than-life gardens, filled with brightly colored plants, animals, and shapes of all sizes! Featuring cut-paper illustrations and interactive foldout pages.” – CIP

Pinkney, Jerry. Just Jerry: How Drawing Shaped My Life. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2023.
Jerry Pinkney always loved drawing. He would lie on his bunk bed and draw pictures on the wall. He would lie under the piano in the living room of the small house where he lived and draw pictures in his sketchpad. He would ride his bicycle through the streets of Philadelphia and stop to draw more pictures. School was difficult, especially in the 1940s and 50s when few people recognized dyslexia. But when Jerry picked up a pencil and started to draw, he came alive. This memoir is a vivid account of Pinkney’s childhood and young adulthood. Right from the first page, the style of writing pulls a reader into the life of a boy growing up in a city where African Americans didn’t feel safe if they ventured beyond their neighbourhoods. It immerses readers in the life of a large loving family and shows how Pinkney was able to become one of the most famous children’s book illustrators in America. Highly recommended for readers 10 years old and up. 

 The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau by Michelle Markel (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2012).

This vividly illustrated picture book biography, written in present tense, is recommended for readers 8 to 14-years-old. [France; Painters; Rousseau, Henri]

Drawing from Memory by Allen Say (Scholastic Press, 2011). 
Drawing From Memory (Scholastic Press, 2011) by Caldecott medal winner Allen Say is an inspiring story about Allen Say’s life. His life was very eventful and also very interesting. This book starts with Allen telling what he did as a kid. All he did as a kid was read and draw. Their family had to escape the war and move quickly. But during that chaos, all Allen wanted to do was draw, and his parents and grandparents hated him for it. His Grandmother finally told him hat if he got into this very well known private middle school, she would rent an apartment for him at the age of 12. Allen of course studied everyday hoping to pass the entrance exam. Once he passed the exam, his Grandmother rented him a place in an apartment. This only reason his Grandmother sent him to the apartment was so he could study for his new school, but the only thing on Allen’s mind was to draw, and draw, and draw. After going out to dinner, Allen picks up the local newspaper at the restaurant. He starts to read about another kid who ran away from home just to draw. He soon got taken in by Allen’s favorite artist, Noro Shinpei. Noro gave him a test just as bad as the middle school exam. Allen passed and became the second apprentice of Noro Shinpei.
This book was creatively coloured. But this book was also very inspiring and interesting. I loved this book, because Allen’s life is very like mine. I often feel like Allen. (Kelvin in grade eight)

Levinson, Cynthia. The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2021.
Ben’s first memory was of drawing. At home, in his little Lithuanian village, he longed to draw everything he could see. But he also cared about justice. After his father escaped from imprisonment by Czar Nicholas II, the family moved to America in 1906, where Ben continued to draw pictures. By the time he died in 1969, he had become known as “the people’s painter,” an artist who drew attention to injustices in society. This sophisticated picture book – with full-page illustrations by Evan Turk and a lengthy afterward with additional information – is highly recommended for readers 9 years old and up.
P.S. References to people and events in American history may be unfamiliar to some readers, so this story would be ideal as a read-aloud and discussion.
P.P.S. I’m partial to picture book biographies. They let me learn about someone by reading a short story that gets to the heart of someone’s character. There are so many books to read and so many topics to learn about that I don’t always have time to read long books. Picture books can be just right, even for adults.

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