Françoise MoulyReseñas

Other reviewers are right that this feels a little misnamed. Most of the featured covers are ones that did make it all the way to the published edition. Still, I really liked getting to see some of the rough sketches for those, as well as the ones that didn't make it in. It's neat to get a little peak into the decisions that go on behind the scenes. Wish there'd been more could've-beens though, and also wish there'd been a little more detail around some of the ones that got passed over. Often there was just a sentence explanation for why something was passed on.

"Why do you only paint faces?"

"Why doesn't anyone in your art smile?"

"When you were paralyzed, were you afraid you wouldn't be able to paint again?"

These are some of the questions artist Chuck Close answers in his new autobiography for children. Filled with his portraits of mostly ordinary people, this book let's readers into Close's extraordinary life.

Born right here in Washington state in 1940, Close began taking art lessons at age 8. His severe dyslexia and prosopagnosia (face blindness) made school difficult, and so he put the full force of his attention into art. Over the years, Close developed his distinctive portraiture style featuring giant canvases filled with neutral faces, including many self-portraits. One great feature of this book is a section of Close's self-portraits divided horizontally into thirds so readers can mix and match his different works (you can see an example of this on the book's cover).

For 8- to 12-year-old budding artists and art lovers, there's no better non-fiction to read this summer. It's an inspirational story of an artist who overcame significant hardship to achieve success and fame.

I always enjoy reading these collections, but so far I think this is the weakest I've read. I often come away from these books with a whole list of authors I'd like to explore further, and I didn't feel that way with this one at all. I also didn't like how the kids' comics were separated out from the adults.

The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments Including the Marginal Readings and Parallel Texts with A Commentary and Critical Notes

Alex from Lilly recommended

This book was very good. They had about 10 different folklores and fairytales in this one book. The style of the writing was descriptive and some of the pictures told the story also. Some of the stories used old formal language to keep with the tradition of the time frame. Some of the stories told in this book I never heard before, so it was very interesting to me.

The rejected covers in this book are sometimes fascinating and sometimes baffling, but the stories behind them are what is most fascinating about this book. It's also amazing how differently people view the same piece of art.

A very cute book to introduce kids to comics. Funny stuff by David Sedaris, Lemony Snicket, Art Spiegelman, Neil Gaiman, and others. A highlight is the very strange Charles Burns full page black and white drawing in which you're supposed to find all the eggs and snakes. If you know Burns's work, you can imagine what this looks like.

This one is pretty weak

Chuck Close: Face Book by Chuck Close with Amanda Freymann and Joan Sommers - You have entered the art studio of Chuck Close, the artist, ready to ask him questions. Close answers the readers and takes the reader on a journey through his life and many of his self-portraits. Part of the book has pages broken into thirds so you can select the perfect medium for each part of Close’s face.½

A collection of retellings of folk tales and fairy tales in graphic novel form by a bunch of illustrators, including Art Spiegelman, David Macaulay, Barbara McClintock, Walt Kelly, William Joyce. There's also a board game with pieces that punch out and instructions. Contributor notes give brief biographies of the authors/artists.

16 comic strip stories by various artists such as Maurice Sendak (Cereal Baby Keller), Martin Handford (Roody Hooster), Crockett Johnson (Barnaby), Jules Feiffer (Trapped in a Comic Book). Sublime to whimsical to weird!

I really loved this ultra cute and smart intro to comics. This compendium of one shots consists of tales that take place on a Dark Silly Night or traditional fairy tales. I was super impressed with the Sleeping Beauty tale because it picks up where the version that most people are familiar with leaves off, after the princess is woken up with a kiss. I also loved lemony snickett's it was a dark and silly night. There were also a lot of fun puzzles like the one's I remember finding in Hilight's magazine, such as find the difference, spot the items, find the matching princesses and a fun take on where's waldo. There are lots of different art styles but they were all fairly colorful and very bright. Overall a fun read and I'm really glad I picked it up.

I really loved this ultra cute and smart intro to comics. This compendium of one shots consists of tales that take place on a Dark Silly Night or traditional fairy tales. I was super impressed with the Sleeping Beauty tale because it picks up where the version that most people are familiar with leaves off, after the princess is woken up with a kiss. I also loved lemony snickett's it was a dark and silly night. There were also a lot of fun puzzles like the one's I remember finding in Hilight's magazine, such as find the difference, spot the items, find the matching princesses and a fun take on where's waldo. There are lots of different art styles but they were all fairly colorful and very bright. Overall a fun read and I'm really glad I picked it up.

I really loved this ultra cute and smart intro to comics. This compendium of one shots consists of tales that take place on a Dark Silly Night or traditional fairy tales. I was super impressed with the Sleeping Beauty tale because it picks up where the version that most people are familiar with leaves off, after the princess is woken up with a kiss. I also loved lemony snickett's it was a dark and silly night. There were also a lot of fun puzzles like the one's I remember finding in Hilight's magazine, such as find the difference, spot the items, find the matching princesses and a fun take on where's waldo. There are lots of different art styles but they were all fairly colorful and very bright. Overall a fun read and I'm really glad I picked it up.

I really loved this ultra cute and smart intro to comics. This compendium of one shots consists of tales that take place on a Dark Silly Night or traditional fairy tales. I was super impressed with the Sleeping Beauty tale because it picks up where the version that most people are familiar with leaves off, after the princess is woken up with a kiss. I also loved lemony snickett's it was a dark and silly night. There were also a lot of fun puzzles like the one's I remember finding in Hilight's magazine, such as find the difference, spot the items, find the matching princesses and a fun take on where's waldo. There are lots of different art styles but they were all fairly colorful and very bright. Overall a fun read and I'm really glad I picked it up.

Biography of famous painter Chuck Close. Examines his life, disability, interest in art, and career. Readers learn about his artistic process and fine art vocabulary which is bold faced through out the text and defined in the books glossary.

This book is filled with questions from young readers to Chuck Close. Chuck Close is a well-known artist who solely paints faces. He struggled as a child and his adult life did not become easier. Chuck had many learning disabilities, but when he was a child they were not diagnosed or heard of. He struggled with reading, math, and remembering faces. Chuck became interested in art and focused much of his time to that. His teachers realized that Close was interested in school, but struggled with the normal way of going about a subject. Often, his teachers gave him extra credit when he painted what he learned. He is full of inspiration because he never gave up even when life tested him. When he grew older he became paralyzed and he went through rehab which helped him gain his strength back. President Obama appointed him to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Chuck Close is a great read for a student who is struggling to find their way. He mentions in his book he was not smart or athletic, but he found himself in art. I loved reading this and I know a child that needs direction will too!

Recommended Ages: Gr. 3-7

Plot Summary:
Intro: successful artist who wasn't good at math or reading, had spinal artery collapse leaving him paralyzed from the chest down
How did you become such a great artist?
What made you start to draw?
You liked to draw, so did you try cartooning?
Did you go to art school?
Why do you only paint faces?
Why do you make so many self-portraits?
Do you work from live models or photographs?
How do you start a painting? Do you put one color on first?
Where did you get the idea to use a grid?
Why are some of your faces in color and others in black and white?
Why doesn't anyone in your art smile?
Why are your paintings so big?
Have you ever painted anyone famous?
How did you find your style?
How do you make your pictures look so real?
Why do you sometimes use abstrat shapes in your "pixelated" pictures?
How long does it take you to make a painting?
Do others help you make your art?
Do you ever make paintings on paper?
When you were paralyzed, were you afraid you wouldn't be able to paint again?
Did you ever want to give up?
Did the Event change how you work in your studio?
Which artists have influenced you?
Do you have any advice for young artists?

Includes timeline, resources, glossary, and index.

Setting: studio in New York

Characters:
Chuck Close
paints his good friends who are artists
painted Bill Clinton

Recurring Themes: art, self portraits, dyslexia, face blindness, grids, quadriplegic, hard work, practice, learning disabilities

Controversial Issues: none

Personal Thoughts: This is a great introduction to Chuck Close and to the art process. It might be a nice read aloud to resource classes who struggle with math or reading. I really liked the part where you could look through all of the self-portraits and mix and match them. However, there were a few times I wish the artwork would be enlarged so I could see detail better, or more photos could have been included in the process. But as an introduction, it was good. There was one page that I read the wrong section first because of the page layout but because each section is so short, it was easy to finish the section then go back and read the paragraph I missed.

Genre: informational text, biography

Pacing:
Characters:
Frame:
Storyline:

Activity: self-portrait½

A bit of fun for all ages, Little Lit is the graphic retelling of some of the more bizarre folk tales. A truly balanced short-story collection, the varying art styles were just as interesting as the stories themselves.

The stories behind New Yorker covers that did or didn't make the final cut, for various reasons. Enjoyable but not terrific. I probably shouldn’t have bought this and am not sure if I’ll keep it.

This one is pretty weak

Awesome comp of some awesome comics. I guess "American" comics means comics from U.S & Canada (and one person living in Germany) but not Mexico & South America. Six of the twenty-four featured adult creators identity themselves as living in Brooklyn, New York. Do humanity a favor the skip the Adrian Tomine section. Chris Ware remains the Borg of comics - completely heartless and evil. I've never liked it when pathology becomes confused with art. As the android Ash says of the Alien, "A perfect organism. It's structural perfection is matched only by its hostility. ... I admire its purity."

Joyce Farmer, Jim Woodring, and Chester Brown are all revelatory though I'm forced to note that Paying For It was an emotional let down but I admire its revolutionary spirit.

If great fiction is based on characterization, Jaime Hernandez remains an American master.

I dug this book for the most part. I enjoyed Close's answers to kids' questions- he is far more guileless than his art led me to believe. I liked the mix and match pieces of his portraits. There's something not there, though, and I can't put my finger on it exactly, but this book didn't scratch all the itch it created somehow. It's breathtakingly hard to talk about the creative process, and even harder to do so when one's audience is children whose natural bullshit detectors are set to maximum gain. For my money, Close does a good job.

An extraordinary introduction to Close and his artistic process through his own words and images. A beautifully conceived, designed, and packaged interactive reading experience.