The Art of Stephen Savage

Stephen Savage

If you look at the artwork for Polar Bear Night by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Stephen Savage, you might think that it seems fairly simple--geometric shapes, pretty shades of blue, green and lavender, some interesting textures. 

But how does Savage create emotion with these fairly straightforward colors and shapes? The uncomplicated compositions allow young children to see themselves standing in for the polar bear cub. And Stephen Savage's technique is anything but simple. 

We got a chance to interview him about his book The Fathers Are Coming Home by Margaret Wise Brown, and he shared with us the multi-step process he uses every time he makes a print for one of his books. He draws on the linoleum, cuts the linoleum to create a relief print, then carefully builds up the inks on the raised areas to give a sense of depth, perspective and, in the case of Polar Bear Night, a nighttime setting.

He demonstrates his process here. It makes you think about how nothing is ever as easy as it looks.

A 50th Anniversary of a Dream

Monday is Martin Luther King Day, and 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. King delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech. How do we make the impact of his words resonate for young people?

Kadir Nelson's glorious images in I Have a Dream (Schwartz & Wade/Random House) accompany the closing passages of Dr. King's speech. These are the most resonant lines, the ones adults hear in our heads when we think of his words. Nelson takes Dr. King's refrain and brings it home to children growing up today. With a portrait of Dr. King's own four children, and with the image for his dream that "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers" in what resembles a game of Ring-Around-the-Rosy, Nelson removes any background or scenery so that the children could be of any time or place. (The book includes a transcription and recording of the full speech.)

Andrea Davis Pinkney

Andrea Davis Pinkney's Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, focuses on other courageous men who helped Dr. King get to that historic day, August 28, 1963. They include A. Philip Randolph, one of Pinkney's chosen 10, who organized the march, and who also plays a key role in Tanya Lee Stone's Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America's First Black Paratroopers. Randolph's plans to organize a similar strike in 1941 resulted in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signing the Fair Employment Act, without which the Triple Nickles likely would not have formed.

All three books demonstrate how many people struggled--and continue to struggle--to realize the promise of Dr. King's dream.

This article first appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers.

Hungry for Knowledge

In The Vengekeep Prophecies, 12-year-old Jaxter Grimjinx is from a family of thieves, but his contribution to their plans and execution is as a reader and chemist. 

He reads to discover the formulas that will open a lock or break a spell. His friendship with Callie inspires him to be a force of good in the world. Jaxter and Callie go on a quest in search of ingredients for an antidote to his family's ill-conceived plan, which has brought adversity upon the town of Vengekeep. But they find so much more. Their journey puts Jaxter in the path of both evil and salvation: his true calling. He meets the Dowager Soranna, whose fascination with herbs and salves outpaces his own. She teaches him about his craft and appreciates his mind. 

Meeting the Dowager introduces a defining moment for Jaxter: Does he steal from her to complete his antidote or remain with her and feed his mind? And what of his family? Can he abandon them? And if he returns to them, is he abandoning himself? This is Jaxter's first taste of independence, and the questions he asks himself are the defining questions of moving toward adulthood. To pursue one's own interests over the plans one's family has made for you can often feel like you're abandoning them. But the words of Jaxter's grandmother, as he sets out on his quest, offer a clue: "The things you learn in books will outshine all of us someday."

This is the first in a trilogy, but this book wraps up beautifully, with no easy answers and lingering questions that may well help shape readers' questions as they grapple with their own inner quests.

"A Teacher Every Day"

David Macaulay in his studio.

David Macaulay teaches with every book he writes. He imparts information like a student who can't wait to share what he's learned. That's why Jet Plane: How It Works feels exciting. It's facts delivered with the urgency of, "Can you believe how this all comes together?" 

Macaulay likes to figure things out, and then explain it all clearly and precisely, one revelation leading to the next. That makes Jet Plane ideal for beginning readers. He also goes a step further, anticipating how a young first-time flier might feel: What's that noise? ("That is the landing gear folding up into the hold.") How do the pilots fly safely at night? How does the plane stay up in the air? With cutaway views of the plane's inner workings, and shots of the control panels, he answers all these anxiety-making questions and puts children at ease. And for those simply interested in the technology, they come away satisfied, too.

In a memorable quote from Henry Drummond, in the play Inherit the Wind, he says, "[Y]ou may conquer the air, but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline." Macaulay shows us that there is as much wonder in how a plane flies as a bird taking to the air. We may have more appreciation for a bird's aerodynamics after learning about all that's required to achieve flight through invention. The author-artist's contagious enthusiasm can't help but infect us, too.

Macaulay once told me, in an interview about The Way We Work, which explores the wonder of the human body, for School Library Journal, "I am a teacher every day. It works because I'm a student every day. All good teachers are students. I get so excited and emotionally tied up with the things I'm learning that I want to pass them on. That by definition makes me a teacher." May we ever remain teachable, and may Macaulay long conduct the classroom.

Comfort Books

In times of grief and sorrow, we turn to comfort food. Chicken soup, hot chocolate, chamomile tea, ice cream. But how do we feed our souls? With comfort books.

Now is the time to pull out your family's favorite books: Charlotte's Web, The Little Prince, Winnie the Pooh, The Wind in the Willows. Their association with happier days comforts us during this time of distress. These are books the entire family--including teenagers--can gather together to read and reread.

Remember that your children's responses will vary, depending on their age and how much they are able to process of the events in Newtown last Friday. The school psychologist at the Bank Street School for Children, Dr. Anne Santa, encourages parents and teachers to reassure children that home and school are two of the safest places they can be. Hold your youngest on your lap and sit close together on the couch: make new memories with good books. 

A few recent favorites include Masterpiece by Elise Broach, which features a friendship that approaches Wilbur and Charlotte's. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky, both by Grace Lin, weave together a quest tale with Chinese folklore, lushly illustrated. Callie's close friendship with a grandfather no one else seems to understand lies at the core of The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly; the author also wrote Return to the Willows, a "sequel" to The Wind in the Willows.

Don't be surprised if your child asks for The Tale of Despereaux and Bridge to Terabithia--two novels that help combat fear and process loss from a safe distance. A mouse who bravely entered the dungeon and emerged triumphant, and a boy who honors his friend who has died give us hope. Let your children choose what they wish to read, and then be there to listen, to answer their questions and to hold them close.

This article first appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers.

One Stitch at a Time

Gennifer Albin

Gennifer Albin wrote Crewel on a dare from her mother-in-law.

Okay, not a dare maybe, but rather a gentle urging on a regular basis. When Gennifer Albin's daughter was eight weeks old, her mother-in-law called. She said, "I was thinking, you always talk about writing books, and I'm going to ask you every time I see you how your book is coming." Albin met her "ridiculously supportive" husband in high school, so she's known her mother-in-law a very long time. "She knew I'd take it as a challenge," Albin told me in an interview. So Albin went to the library every day and in 70-minute intervals (that’s how long she was allowed to use the computer before getting booted off for other patrons), she wrote Crewel.

Embroidering the Earth's Mantle

The inspiration for her story is an image from an alterpiece, Embroidering the Earth's Mantle by Remedios Varo, in which women embroider in a tower removed from the rest of society. This idea that the fabric of a world, the elements of a tapestry, the phases of a story may be stitched together, one strand at a time, 70 minutes per session, is a powerful one to take into the New Year. 

Albin also used the tools of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is November). But don't wait until November to start! Use the tools today. 

Anthem to Uniqueness

Michael Hearst 

By his own admission, Michael Hearst, author of Unusual Creatures, is attracted to the uncommon. He collects unique instruments and plays them. He collects unusual creatures and composes for them. No words, just melodies. (And by "collects," I mean collects and researches information about them, not that he collects the actual animals; though Hearst does collect the actual musical instruments.) 

The format of his book invites kids to dip in and out or read straight through. When I got a chance to interview him, he said the design was inspired by Safari Cards, which he collected as a kid. All of his interests inform his book.

Hearst said that hearing Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens was one of the reasons he went to music school. "That gave me the idea of writing pieces of music inspired by the animals, and even by their sounds," he said. He heard Carnival performed by the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, with poems by Ogden Nash to go with the songs. When he performs the 14 songs from the CD Songs for Unusual Creatures* (which preceded the book), he also reads the poems he wrote, inspired by the animals.

If you listen to "Blobfish," for instance, you can hear its blobbiness in the music. He used two unusual instruments for the song: the contrabasson, which he said is a very deep oboe--"the lowest you can get, from the reed family"--and the tubbax. He explained, "I wanted it to sound like two blobfish talking to each other." Michael Hearst is also passionate about saving these creatures, many of whom are endangered (but he saves his gentle proselytizing for the endnotes). A Renaissance man, Hearst smoothly integrates art and science through his music, his writing and his research. 


*Note: All 14 creatures featured on the CD are also included in the book; although the CD is not included with the book, you can hear a preview (and order it) on the author's Web site.

Photo credit: Chris Smith Photography