When he encountered inconclusive evidence as to whether dazzle actually worked, it thwarted his ability to end the book on a predictable high note. Chris is adept at riding the twists and turns of real stories rather than trying to force them into a happy-ending shape. One thing you'll notice in truly true stories - and kids DEFINITELY notice this - is that they don't always follow the expected path. If you wanted to write a paper about the invention of Day-Glo colors, Chris's book would be one of your best sources. Usually, children's nonfiction builds on or is inspired by nonfiction written for adults. So this is our Texas pal Chris Barton, whose zeal for primary research has brought us such original nonfiction as The Day-Glo Brothers and the award-winning Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions. I'm thinking of getting a new tattoo) and charmed by the improbable story of dazzle's inspiration and execution that you notice the writing. Avant garde drag queens of the sea.Īnd it's only after you've been distracted and dizzied by the art (which, don't let me out of here without performing some kind of obesiance to Victo Ngai - this is her first picture book but her editorial, product, cover, and advertising work demonstrates a breathtaking breadth of skill. Like giant metal carousel horses painted by Mondrian. Instead of painting these ships with camouflage that duplicates natural colors and patterns, dazzle ships were high-contrast and largely geometric. Then the story kicks in, and you may be blown away by the audacity of the idea of dazzle. Sophisticated wavy lines weave and undulate like ribbons across the page, mimicking light on water, cloud shadows, and the dazzle patterns that camouflaged British and U.S. What you'll notice first about this book is THIS ILLUSTRATOR. But a willingness to tackle problems by trying the unlikely, the improbable, the seemingly bonkers will always be needed. Challenges of all kinds get replaced by new ones. That sort of creativity is good for more than just morale. Some insisted that at the very least, the sailors on those ships just felt better knowing that something had been tried to keep them from getting torpedoed. But I love the point Barton makes from this conclusion. Though the United States decided (in classic United States fashion) that this technique was a wild success, the British Royal Navy could not actually prove that it had worked at all, and in fact we have no way of knowing. Victo Ngai explores the significance of art, that it's connected to many more parts of life than we often realize, and tells the readers to look closely for a small symbol she includes on every page that represents her Chinese heritage. Chris Barton talks about the process of research, the way it always leads to more questions, the way photographs can omit or obscure facts, and explains that although many important figures ended up being cut from his story (I'm so curious about Arthur Conan Doyle and Gertrude Stein!) he had to include the fact that it was women who did much of the work. I can't decide which element of it is the best (that's a lie, it's obviously the spectacular illustrations)-but the subject itself is fascinating, and even the author's and illustrator's notes were more than usually interesting. The gorgeous cover caught my attention while I was cataloging it, and I had to pause to read through. Jennifer and I live in Austin, where I serve as a council member of the Texas Institute of Letters, a 501(c)(3) non-profit honor society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement.įor more information about me, please visit This book is stunning. Jennifer and I have four adult children and one dog, and we co-host the children’s literature video series “This One’s Dedicated to…” in which we talk with other authors and illustrators about the dedications they’ve written for their books. I'm married to middle-grade/YA novelist Jennifer Ziegler (WORSER, HOW NOT TO BE POPULAR). I visit schools by the score and also love speaking to professional gatherings of librarians, educators, and fellow writers. My new books include MOVING FORWARD: FROM SPACE-AGE RIDES TO CIVIL RIGHTS SIT-INS WITH AIRMAN ALTON YATES (illustrated by Steffi Walthall a School Library Journal Best Book of 2022) and GLITTER EVERYWHERE! WHERE IT CAME FROM, WHERE IT'S FOUND & WHERE IT'S GOING (illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat June 2023). DRAGON, DAZZLE SHIPS, THE AMAZING AGE OF JOHN ROY LYNCH, and WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A VOICE LIKE THAT? Other well-known titles of mine include HOW TO MAKE A BOOK (ABOUT MY DOG), FIRE TRUCK VS. TRAIN, Sibert Honor-winning THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS, and WHOOSH! LONNIE JOHNSON'S SUPER-SOAKING STREAM OF INVENTIONS, which has been included on 21 state reading lists. I'm the author of picture books including bestseller SHARK VS.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |