Beautiful biographies for young readers to enjoy

  • By Karen Macpherson Scripps Howard News Service
  • Sunday, September 27, 2009 4:08pm
  • LifeLetters

Picture-book biographies pack a lot of facts into a large, illustration-filled format, offering an enticing package for kids.

Here’s a look at some great new picture-book biographies:

In “Finding Susie” (ages 4 to 8, $16.99), former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor delivers a slice of autobiography that will interest any child who’s ever wanted a pet.

Drawn from O’Connor’s own childhood, the story centers on young Sandra’s unsuccessful efforts to tame several wild animals — including a bobcat. Then one day, she’s offered a stray dog named Susie, and Sandra knows she’s finally found the perfect pet.

Author Jonah Winter has just published two very different picture-book biographies. In “The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert &Sullivan” (ages 5 to 8, $16.99), Winter tells how a quarrel between two friends resulted in some of the world’s most popular musicals. The brightly colored, stylized illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Richard Egielski add further energy to Winter’s tale.

Winter’s other picture-book biography borrows the style of its subject writer Gertrude Stein — to tell her story. Titled “Gertrude Is Gertrude Is Gertrude Is Gertrude” (ages 7 to 10, $16.99), the book will intrigue children as they work to understand just why the author keeps repeating phrases and why some words are printed in large type while others are in small type.

In “Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Loved to Draw” (ages 7 to 10, $16.99), author-illustrator Deborah Kogan Ray tells the story of a woman who is credited with creating the first modern picture book. With a text drawn partly from Gag’s own words and illustrations reminiscent of her artwork,

Ray’s book captures Gag’s long, difficult journey to becoming an artist, showing how hard work, plus a bit of luck, can help people achieve their dreams.

Author Shana Corey and illustrator Edwin Fotheringham team up to create a splashy look at an adventurous woman named Annette Kellerman in “Mermaid Queen” (ages 7 to 10, $17.99). Now largely forgotten, Kellerman was a celebrity in the early 20th century, best known as the creator of water ballet and as a fashion revolutionary who championed more modern bathing suits for women.

In “The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau” (ages 5 to 8, $16.99), author-illustrator Dan Yaccarino helps young readers experience the marvelous watery world that so captured the imagination of the famous explorer.

Yaccarino’s brief text is straightforward, while his eye-catching illustrations, painted in gouache and then airbrushed, are steeped in the colors and forms of the sea.

Author Kathryn Lasky paints a riveting portrait of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, compressing many different events in her life into a single day, in “Georgia Rises” (ages 6 to 10, $16.95). Lasky’s lyrically written text allows readers to understand O’Keeffe’s creative genius. Meanwhile, the outstanding illustrations by Ora Eitan vividly reference O’Keeffe’s art while retaining Eitan’s own style.

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