Odd Boy Out: Young Albert by Don Brown

Summary: Grade 2-5–This well-crafted picture-book biography focuses on Einstein's hard-to-classify brilliance, which led to awesome scientific discoveries, but all too often left him a misunderstood outsider. Brown describes his subject's loving, cultured parents who were frequently nonplussed by their son's behavior and temper. He found himself the "odd boy" at school, and as the only Jewish student, was sometimes taunted by other children. He puzzled his instructors as well; though clearly gifted in science, math, and music, he was an indifferent student in most subjects. Brown's pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations, rendered in a palette of dusky mauve and earthy brown, portray a doubtful, somewhat unhappy-looking child, except for a picture in which he gazes fondly at a compass, a gift that astonishes him as he ponders its mysteries. In many scenes he is marginalized on the sidelines, set apart by color and shading. One dramatic spread features an adult Einstein pushing his child in a carriage, looking small against a backdrop that highlights some of the scientific puzzles that so engaged him. Through eloquent narrative and illustration, Brown offers a thoughtful introduction to an enigmatic man. This book will pique the interest of readers with little or no knowledge of Einstein.–Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Classroom Implications: This picture book biography reminds students that academic icons, such as Albert Einstein, were once children! This nonfiction text is accessible to students due to it's picture book format. This is helpful as a read aloud to younger children and a hands-on text with the older grades. A great connection with science curriculum in the upper grades, too!

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Runaway Girl: The Artist Louise Bourgeois by Jan Greensberg

Summary: Gr. 7 and Up As in Frank O. Gehry, Outside In (2000), the authors once again make challenging art accessible and exciting to teen readers. This time they focus on Louise Bourgeois, one of the best-known living sculptors, whose work deals with primal themes of jealousy, betrayal, and shifting sexual identities, which, according to Bourgeois are inspired by her painful childhood and her adulterous father. In clear, elegant prose, bolstered with numerous quotes from the artist, the authors seamlessly juxtapose stories of Bourgeois' life with relevant artworks, which are often explained in the artist's own words. Beautifully reproduced photographs, printed on well-designed pages, offer an excellent mix of the artist's personal life and her art, though the authors remind readers that "we don't have to know her story to have our own strong reaction," to her work. By showing the relationship among shapes, colors, materials, and emotions, the authors invite readers to approach even the most bewildering art with confidence and think about it in their own words. The book concludes with a glossary, a bibliography, and notes. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Classroom Implications: Another book by Greensberg to spruce up middle school biography collection. Text interweaves some personal struggles students can relate to and the art she manifested as in artist. This text does an excellent job connecting the personal life with what she produces in her professional world.

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Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop by Jan Greenberg

Summary: Grade 6-9–Warhol's career spanned advertising, painting, filmmaking, and magazine publishing. This competent, well-documented biography covers his childhood and art school years in Pittsburgh, his successful career in commercial art, and his rise in the Pop Art movement. Chapters also cover his dependence on his mother; his pursuit of celebrity; the lively social, drug, and art scene at his studio (christened the "Factory"); a near-fatal shooting; and his death at age 59. The authors provide a good balance of personal and art history, showing how Warhol's signature silkscreen soup cans and portraits were rooted in his commercial beginnings and 1960s commentary on consumerism. Throughout, they provide insight into specific works of art and their relationship to one another. Their liberal use of quotes by Warhol and his contemporaries paints a picture of a man who was often flip or evasive, who wore a very public persona but was extremely guarded about his personal life. The excellent glossary will aid students new to art terms. From the cover design to the quality of the paper and well-selected reproductions and photos, this is attractive bookmaking. While this eccentric, enigmatic subject is not likely to engender affection among readers, they will finish the book with an understanding of his legacy to the art world.–Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Classroom Implications: This book is sure to update and liven a book study of biographies in a middle school classroom! Winner of the Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award, Greenberg works to humanize a controversial subject of history and a past art scene.

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Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits by Wynton Marsalis and Paul Rogers

Summary: Ages 9 & Up–Fans of poetry, jazz, and modern art will love this book. With Marsalis handling the words and Rogers the graphics, they have created an illustrated catalog of great jazz innovators from A (Louis Armstrong) to Z (Dizzy Gillespie). Large, colorful, LP-size paintings of the forefathers and mothers of jazz face cleanly printed, sometimes shaped poetry. The stylized artwork is gorgeous, evoking the spirit of pop art, Blue Note album covers, and 1920s advertising art. Particularly eye-catching are the images of Thelonious Monk (an homage to early-20th-century food-label graphics) and Eubie Blake (with hands and a keyboard integrated into the poem), but every page is a delight to behold. Although Marsalis includes 27 different poetic forms, his poems move along similarly at the pace of a drum solo. The selections are visual, but work best when read aloud like slam poetry, beat poetry, or hip-hop. Particular highlights are a playful Miles Davis selection and a challenging performance poem for Art Blakey. In addition to the information about the musicians embedded in the poems, short biographical sketches are included. This uncommon alphabet book will delight readers and deserves a place in most library collections.–Steev Baker, Kewaskum Public Library, WI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unique Features: A great alphabet book for older students' libraries. This text contains biographies of jazz musicians and the illustrations are presented in unique art deco format. Great to use in a study on jazz music and African American heritage.

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Me llamo Celia/My Name is Celia: La vida de Celia Cruz/The Life of Celia Cruz by Monica Brown

Summary: Grade 2-4 - An exuberant picture-book biography of the Cuban-born salsa singer. From its rhythmic opening, the first-person narrative dances readers through Cruz's youth in Havana, a childhood bounded by scents of nature and home, the sweet taste of sugar, and the sound of music. A singer from an early age, Cruz sang so continually that one of her teachers finally urged her to share her voice with the world. Thus encouraged, she entered competitions, undeterred when her racial heritage prevented her from competing - undeterred, even, when the advent of Castro's communist regime forced her to leave Cuba as a refugee. Positive even in exile, Cruz made New York City her own and took Miami by storm. The salsa-influenced prose presented in English and in Spanish is followed by a straightforward vita of the singer, noting her death in July 2003. Lopez's distinguished, luminous acrylic paintings are alive with motion, lush with brilliantly layered colors, and informed with verve and symbolism. This is a brilliant introduction to a significant woman and her music. The only enhancement required is the music itself. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parallel Texts: When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan matches the content of this picture book biography. Both stories tell of singers that battled society forces, whether they be racism or regimes, in order to share their gift of music with the world. These stories are especially important in the classroom due to the diminished time celebrating and exploring the music arts.

Other texts that celebrate the music arts include...
John Coltrane's Giant Steps
Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuoso
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra (Caldecott Honor Book)
Charlie Parker Played Be Bop

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The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman

Gr. 4-8. In lush operatic style, Pam Munoz Ryan's picture-book biography When Marian Sang (2002), with beautiful illustrations by Brian Selznick, celebrated the triumph of the great African American vocalist in the face of the vicious segregation of her time. Now for middle-grade and junior-high readers comes this handsome, spaciously designed photo-biography. In his signature prose, plain yet eloquent, Freedman tells Anderson's triumphant story, with numerous black-and-white documentary photos and prints that convey her personal struggle, professional artistry, and landmark civil rights role. Everything leads up to her 1939 historic performance at the Lincoln Memorial, where, denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall, she thrilled a crowd of 75,000 and a national radio audience. Freedman reveals that Anderson never invited political confrontation, but with the support of such friends as Eleanor Roosevelt, she had a profound effect on the nation. Documentation is an essential part of her exciting story, with many pages of source notes as well as an enthusiastic, annotated bibliography, and, of course, a discography. Older readers and adults will want this, too. Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Classroom Implications: Pairing this book with Ryan's picture book is a great way to make nonfiction texts accessible for the intermediate and upper grade classrooms. This book is an essential for biography studies and nonfiction reading.

Additional Information and Links on Marian Anderson

Skills and Strategies

• Determining Importance
• Fact and Opinion
• Retelling
• Scanning
• Summarizing

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