Françoise Mouly

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.… (more)

"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.
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