(1) K-3 Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. Bourgeois, who became most famous for her giant sculptures of spiders, also worked with textiles, and it's at her family's tapestry-restoration workshop in France, along a river "that wove like a wool thread through everything," that the book begins. Novesky sews together the many themes of Bourgeois's art and life into a spare yet lilting narrative. Arsenault's mixed-media illustrations create stylistically and compositionally varied images.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2016

(2) YA Bourgeois demonstrates an artist's ability to find her voice based not on external events but on an inner self formed largely from childhood experience. Fifteen pages of backmatter (including an essay on how to look at sculpture) allow the authors to attend to their subject without stopping to explain the basics. Bourgeois's emotional honesty and the authors' infectious admiration create an uplifting book. Timeline. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2003