Review by Booklist Review
This dazzling picture-book biography offers a creative crash course in the artistic and social justice teachings of Sister Corita Kent, the Catholic nun who became a pop art sensation in the 1960s. Told from the perspective of one of Kent's students, invaluable lessons in art and life are conversationally shared: "Sister Corita teaches us to SEE what everybody sees but doesn't see." The lines between hard work and play blur together in the pop art nun's lively art classes. On field trips around Los Angeles, pupils are encouraged to pay attention to their surroundings and look at advertisements, street signs, and billboards with different perspectives. A small piece of cardboard with a hole cut out (dubbed a "finder") helps bring the beauty of the ordinary into focus. Caldecott Honor--winning illustrator Sweet's spectacular signature collages burst with eye-popping colors, bold typography, and visual poetry. Inviting close inspection, quotes from Kent are seamlessly integrated into background details, appearing on posters, magazine covers, and protest signs. The elegant, inventive text reads like blank verse: "She is small and quiet, but her art is big and loud. As we walk past, it grabs us, makes us STOP and LOOK." Back matter includes a concise time line, source notes, and a bibliography for further information about Kent. Playing with words and images, this picture book is an artful homage to a "joyous revolutionary."
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Just right for young creatives, this optimistic biography of artist Corita Kent (1918--1986) shimmers with the figure's energy and sense of possibility. The story launches with an art lesson explained by an unidentified narrator: "Sister Corita teaches us to SEE/ what everybody sees/ but doesn't see." Images depicting a group viewing the world through a "finder"--a piece of cardboard with a square removed--and experimenting with art in a classroom are interspersed with hand-rendered typography that quotes Kent's insights ("The commonplace is not worthless, there is simply lots of it"). Yellows, pinks, and oranges dominate Sweet's mixed-media collage illustrations, which pivot to b&w to portray a scene describing "injustice, inequality, prejudice, poverty" and back into color to convey Kent's eventual renown and departure from the church. Combining pop art and protest, the result is a joyous nexus of experimentation and creative responsibility that details a "small and quiet" figure whose art remains "big and loud." Creators' notes, an artist timeline, and a list of quotation sources conclude. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4--8. (Apr.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
The words revolutionary, art, and sister in the book's subtitle offer a fitting description of the legacy of Sister Corita Kent, the "Pop Art Nun" (1918-1986). Rockliff (Sweet Justice, rev. 1/22) begins with Kent's young adult years, when she was already making waves as a Catholic nun and an unconventional artist and teacher in 1950s and '60s Los Angeles. A (fictional) student narrator describes the impact she made on others, bringing intimacy and immediacy to the story. "We break all the rules of art, even our own. We become fearless explorers, just like her." The narrative offers glimpses into the rest of Kent's life, both the beauty and the challenges, with an emphasis on her way of seeing the world; an author's note adds brief specifics about her artwork. Sweet's (Celia Planted a Garden, rev. 5/22) eye for attention-grabbing color and page design is especially effective for this subject. She employs her signature materials and methods, combining "collage and watercolor using hand-painted papers, printmaking, gouache, vintage magazines, pencil, and mixed media" to render an authentic feel for Kent's work. Pair with Winter's Sister Corita's Words and Shapes (rev. 9/21) for another look at this influential artist. Back matter also includes an illustrator's note, a timeline, source notes, directions for creating the viewfinder Kent used with her students, and a list of places to learn more. Christina DorrMay/June 2024 p.161 (c) Copyright 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
An evocative tribute to the style and spirit of a countercultural pop artist. "She is small and quiet, but her art is big and loud." Rockliff leaves most of the biographical details of Sister Corita Kent's (1918-1986) meteoric public career to the closing timeline and focuses instead on conveying her methods and message as her students might have experienced them. The author asks readers to follow the artist's practice by using a hole cut through a piece of cardboard--or, alternatively, a cell phone camera--as a "finder" to isolate and see anew portions of the common, everyday world's surrounding scenes and signage. She captures her subject at work clipping words from advertisements and magazines to make uplifting, politically aware collages and luminous screen prints. "She has taught us how to SEE / and play / and protest joyfully," the author concludes. "Now it's our turn to share what we have learned." Along with nods to some of Sister Corita's own works and writings, Sweet incorporates similar assemblages of words against bright, vibrant abstract backgrounds to accompany glimpses of the smiling but serious-looking white artist, in both traditional habit and "modern" dress, hard at work amid groups of students and marchers who are diverse in terms of skin tone. A buoyant invitation to see the world and to look for artistic ways to improve it. (author's and illustrator's notes, quote sources, further resources) (Picture-book biography. 7-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
