Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Georgia and Skippyjon

In my imaginary spectrum of picture books that appeal to children, I place Chicken Butt and Skippyjon on one end, and Georgia Rises, A Day in the Life of Georgia O'Keeffe, on the other. Georgia Rises is beautifully written  by Kathryn Lasky and beautifully illustrated by Ora Eitan.  How appealing it is to kids, I don't know. It could be quiet and poetic enough to tip it off the kid-appeal spectrum. But as I write this I realize that the real focus of the book is color, and color is an interesting subject to a lot of kids. My kids had favorite colors from about the age of 3, and their favorites kept changing.

There are (at least)  two other  picture books about O'Keeffe: My Name is Georgia  by Jeanette Winter, and  Through Georgia's Eyes by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez, illustrated by the marvelous Julie Paschkis.



Monday, November 09, 2009

the little sandman


The Sandmännchen  was an East German TV character. In honor of his 50th birthday a feature-length film is scheduled to open in German movie theaters.