Rachel Victoria Rodriguez

I've always loved Georgia O'Keefe and was excited to find a book about her life and work that young students can access. I appreciate that instead of recreating O'Keefe's paintings, the illustrator instead "translated the images into cut-paper collages." The book is written in third person, with the opening page reflecting her as perhaps a toddler noticing "light all around." It then traces her life, including her spoken desire to be an artist as a 12-year-old in 1899 -- a "scandal" at the time since only boys could become artists. (Ugh!) But Georgia continues to paint; she gets her inspiration from nature, no matter where she lives. She finds beauty in color, flowers, skies, seashells, and more. The story is an interesting, easily understandable journey through O'Keefe soaking in the world around her and then transferring it to larger-than-life paintings. It's beautifully written and includes a full "More About Georgia O'Keefe" page at the end of the book where readers learn her parents wanted her to be an art teacher, but she "held fast to her dream of earning a living as an artist." Her work is now world renowned and though she has passed, her work continues to grow in museums around the world. This is a great biographical picture book for early and middle elementary students.… (más)

The illustrations in this book are vivid and very detailed. Antoni Gaudi's style of architecture was unlike anything people had seen before. His ability to incorporate elements of nature into the structures of buildings was very imaginative. "His daring creations speak for him. They tell his stories. They are Gaudi's poem to the world." If the structures of his buildings wasn't impressive enough the way he decorated his creations was, having mosaicked the majority of surfaces. I believe this book could spark a child's interest in not only architecture but also the beauty of nature. Using Gaudi as an example, children can learn to value their imagination and become willing to think outside of the box.… (más)