Review by Booklist Review
This picture-book introduction to the life and works of Marc Chagall is told from the perspectives of his twin grandchildren, who are visiting him in the South of France. Chagall shows them several of his most famous paintings and recounts vignettes from his life that detail his happy childhood in Russia; his training at art school; meeting his wife Bella; the birth of his daughter, Ida; coming to America to escape the Nazis; and his prolific work after WWII. Anholt's colorful, squiggly artwork complements Chagall's own paintings, six of which are reproduced in the story. Several of Anholt's illustrations echo Chagall's works both in composition and style which makes for a pleasing mix. Appended with biographical information about Chagall (unfortunately printed on the inside back cover, under the dust jacket flap), this makes a good complement to Michelle Markel's Dreamer from the Village (2005), which concentrates on the artist's early life.--Weisman, Kay Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The long-running Anholt's Artists series of picture-book biographies expands with a tribute to Marc Chagall, in which the artist responds to his grandchildren's repeated requests for a story by recalling his childhood, growing passion for painting, and successes and challenges as an artist. Anholt's loose and airy paintings picture Chagall as a kindly, attentive grandparent, whose cheerful demeanor only flags when he recalls participating in an exhibition arranged "just so people could laugh at us" and needing to leave Europe for America (an endnote goes into detail about the Nazi persecution that sent Chagall and his family fleeing for the U.S.). Reproductions of several Chagall works bolster this intimate introduction. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
Twin brother and sister solicit stories from their grandfather, Papa Chagall, who entrances the kids with a string of vignettes that combine to give a persistently chipper overview of the artist Marc Chagall's life (more substantial biographical information is inside the back cover). Anholt's loose-lined art captures many of Chagall's motifs and embodies the levity of much of his work; actual reproductions are worked in. (c) Copyright 2014. 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.
