Amy Novesky

In this lyrically-told, beautifully-illustrated biographical picture-book, author Amy Novesky and illustrator Isabelle Arsenault weave the story of 20th-century French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, who is particularly noted for her large-scale sculpture. Bourgeois often used the image of the spider in her work, a figure who represented her beloved mother, a weaver who worked in tapestry restoration. As the title of Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois makes plain, images of show more weaving and fabric are important in understanding this artist's life and work, and author and illustrator carefully chose various strands of story and image in creating a narrative that emphasizes the influence of her mother and childhood on her later development as an artist.

Although less of a standard biography - many of the details of Bourgeois' life are absent, particularly her strong left-leaning activism in the 1970s - than it is an exploration of certain themes in its subject's life and work, Cloth Lullaby is nevertheless an informative book, one which will introduce many children to an artist they might otherwise not have encountered. The artwork by Isabelle Arsenault, who also worked on the marvelous French-Canadian graphic novel, Jane, the Fox and Me, is simply beautiful, utilizing a variety of media - pencil, ink, pastel, watercolor and photoshop - to create a rich visual feast. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-books about artists, or about the ways in which our childhood experiences shape us. show less

A gorgeously illustrated story of French artist Louise Bourgeois in a book presumably meant for children but with such sophisticated artwork and text that it works for readers of all ages. The Bourgeois family specialized in repairing and weaving old tapestries and frayed cloths, and Louise came to see her mother as a kindly spider, a repairer of broken things. As she said: “If you bash into the web of a spider she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and she repairs it.” Her mother was her show more best friend and Louise took her death very badly, being still a student when she passed away, which explains why she went on to sculpt giant spiders which were meant to celebrate her mother when Louise later became an artist.

I’m a huge fan of illustrator Isabelle Arsenault and am simply in love with her illustration style, blending beautiful watercolours with vintage drawings and imagery, often with a collage effect with a stunning colour palette. She’s a fellow Montrealer and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have once been in a position to commission artwork from her to illustrate a difficult subject matter for the magazine I was working for at the time. I did so because she also has a huge talent conceptually and was able to come up with a truly novel idea to illustrate an article that was impossible to match a photograph to. While she is a genius creatively and technically she is also humble and perfectly pleasant. I have the greatest respect for this artist and am always eager to see her latest projects. This one, like so much of her work, combines beauty and high quality with a very interesting subject matter. show less

This biographies style is much different than expected. I thought it would relay more information as a painter and artist but instead it focused on how she felt small compared to her artist husband until one night she sung at a party and she was not kept as a bird on his shoulder anymore, she went home and painted a portrait of her and her husband on their wedding day and included a bird for the freedom she know felt. She made herself small in the portrait and Diego big much like society saw show more her and once she dumped these feelings into her art she became famous and was put into a woman's art show for her work to be shown to the world. I love the mention of Mexican culture and how she just wanted to fit in and be empowered. The colorful illustrations brought this book above and beyond. show less

"Using simple, reductive prose, this appreciation of jazz great Holiday focuses on the dogs in the singer’s life.

“Lady Day’s dogs were her best friends of all.” Novesky supports this assertion with evidence: a pocket-sized poodle, a beagle, Chihuahuas; a mutt called Rajah Ravoy. But the spotlight’s on Mister, Holiday’s elegant, devoted boxer, who went to gigs, dined on steaks and even wore a mink coat. While an author’s note provides background, the text is resolutely oblique show more on the subject of Holiday’s 1947 drug conviction and jail time. “[J]ust when her career was at the top, Lady got into trouble. She had to leave home for a year and a day. And Mister couldn’t come.” While much of the narrative is fact-based, Novesky does take an acknowledged liberty in speculating that Mister might have attended Billie’s successful post-prison show at Carnegie Hall. (Illustrator Newton places Mister there, on the final spread.) Newton’s appealing mixed-media pictures, containing elements of gouache, charcoal, collage and digital layering, range from images derived from concert photos to a playful imagining of napkin-draped Mister drooling over a steak. Her reliance on period photos has one drawback: Holiday’s face and physique alter in several spreads, belying the compressed, undated narrative arc.

By highlighting Lady Day’s affectionate relationship with Mister, Novesky and Newton invite readers to admire the illustrious singer in a sparkling new light. (author’s note, website, adult bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)" www.kirkusreviews.com show less