Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ah, Picasso he shook up the art world like no other. And this picture book captures all the disparate emotions he engendered about his art and himself: excitement, confusion, hostility. The title page (and the back cover) features an intense, full-face portrait of Picasso, staring down and even daring the reader. The next spread is a pastoral scene of the French countryside: One day the world is a peaceful, lovely landscape painting. Turn the page and Picasso jumps ( BLAM! ) right through the sky and trees. Readers then learn a little about young Pablo. He outshone and outpaced the adults in his art classes. He breathlessly moved through styles. His mood was reflected by his paintings (Blue Period, anyone?). And he became Mr. Big Famous Art Star. Now we see Picasso in a hands-on-hips Superman pose. In words and visuals, the powerhouse team of Winter and Hawkes captures the ever-changing creativity that was Picasso's hallmark by mirroring it in the book's ebullient, often disconcerting design. Disapproving faces crowd in from the border in one spread, and in another a defiantly posed Picasso must be turned lengthwise to get the full effect. This hopscotch biography should lead readers to want to know more about the artist (and a guide to his paintings and an afterword will help). But even if not, this is still a combustible experience.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Winter (Barack) resists the "good for you" air of some picture-book biographies in this dynamic reimagining of Picasso's rocket trip to the top of the 20th-century art world, while Hawkes (The Wicked Big Toddlah Goes to New York) is energized rather than intimidated by the challenge of painting the great painter. Hawkes shows the mercurial artist burning through art school ("In the time it takes them to do a sketch, Picasso has completed a large oil painting"), charming the Parisian gallery scene ("C'est magnifique! Paint about two hundred more paintings just like that!"), then enraging the French critical establishment with "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," a painting that mimics the African masks Picasso has fallen in love with. (Hawkes's top-hatted critics look suspiciously Cubist.) Will Picasso accede to the critics' demands? "He doesn't want to, he doesn't have to, and he's not going to! Hah!" By dramatizing Picasso's development rather than merely recounting it, Winter keeps readers fascinated, and by making Picasso a superhero-he bursts right through the canvas of a serene landscape on the second page-he dispels any notion of art as tired or irrelevant. Ages 4-8. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-As the title suggests, Picasso did not always behave. He refused to conform to popular taste or replicate his own successes. Using an innovative and offbeat approach, Winter provides glimpses of the energy, enthusiasm, and dedication that ruled the artist's world. In covering his early years (his experimentation with style, perspective, and color were not always appreciated), the author delivers a pungent message to today's young artists: don't be discouraged if your creative efforts are criticized. In doing so, Winter reminds readers that Picasso, despite being mocked, brought a whole new way of looking at the world through Cubism. The painter is, of course, the dominant, larger-than-life figure throughout-one spread, positioned vertically, finds him proclaiming, "The chief enemy of creativity is `good sense!'" Hawkes matches Winter's storytelling rhythm, supplying vitality and intensity to the spreads with colorful scenes of Paris, people of the time, and fascinating renditions of Picasso's own work. This book is a boon for art teachers and especially classroom teachers and librarians working to bring an artistic presence and sensibility into children's lives.-Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Picasso was a giant -- not literally, as Hawkes depicts him on the jacket here, towering cheerfully over the city of Paris, but possessed of the larger-than-life charisma of his title-page image, its dark-eyed stare brimming with intelligence and purpose. Winters energetic account focuses on the painters unquenchable inventiveness, tracing his rise from prodigy through several controversial styles and from the furor over his African mask-inspired "Les Demoiselles dAvignon" to his revolutionary cubist "Girl with a Mandolin." Hawkes, meanwhile, evokes Picassos oeuvre without imitating it, an impressive achievement. The illustrators broad brush and painterly art -- rendered in open acrylics and sepia pencil -- re-create the painter and his milieu in boldly saturated color and vigorous gestures. More: Hawkes captures the essence of twenty paint-ings (cited at the end). A concluding note provides context but no sources; though the facts are widely available, it would be nice to know whether Picasso really yelled from a rooftop, "To copy yourself is pathetic!" Still, a delightful celebration of creative genius. joanna rudge long(c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Winter charts the course of an artist determined to travel by his own compass. He depicts the young adult Picasso beset by critics on every side (including an unnamed wife--"Why can't you keep painting beautiful pictures?"--though Picasso would not actually marry any of the women in his life until much later). Hawkes' vibrant, full-bleed illustrations offer Picasso as a superhero of sorts, red cape included, dashing as his artistic muse might inspire, and faithfully reproduce a few familiar works. A bit of magical realism intrudes as Picasso floats through Paris and later when "Picasso expands himself to a height of one hundred feet" to face down his critics. A mere taste of the iconoclastic artist emerges, but an essential point is conveyed--that Picasso understood that art is more than the eye perceives as "real." An energetic and affectionate introduction to an artist who was always somewhat larger than life. (biographical note) (Picture book. 5-10)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
