(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jennifer Mack-Watkins. Elijah Pierce was a Black Mississippi folk artist born in 1892 in a log cabin. In this imagined encounter, a young Black boy gets his hair cut at Pierce's barbershop and is treated to a tour of the barbershop's art gallery, featuring Pierce's wood carvings. "Sculptures and walking sticks. Models and message signs...Everyday people. And famous people. Everything I carve, I want it to tell some kind of story." Mack-Watkins uses printmaking techniques and mixed-media collage to create colorful, textured art representing Pierce's folk art. The brief narrative works on several levels. It showcases the artist and his work and how he was instrumental in the growing recognition of folk art in the American art scene. We also see how Pierce's art inspires a young boy's burgeoning interest in making art of his own. The story would pair well with Tate and Christie's It Jes' Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw (rev. 5/12). Back matter includes an authors' note, images of Pierce's art, an artist's note, a timeline, and a list of museums where Pierce's work is shown.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Lauren Soloy. Maud Lewis (1903–1970) was a Nova Scotian folk artist who lived with rheumatoid arthritis. Despite physical and economic challenges, she never let her passion for art fade away. As a child, when her hands become too bent and stiff to play the piano, she starts painting. When her parents die and her brother sells the house, Maud finds a job as fish peddler Everett Lewis's live-in housekeeper (and eventually marries him, though this isn't mentioned in the book). There's not much money for paint, but Maud makes the best of what she has, adding "touches of colour" to Everett's "dull little house," painting birds and butterflies on the doors and flowers on the windows. Eventually she is able to sell her beautiful paintings and gain recognition for her creations. Stinson celebrates not only Lewis's artistic achievements but also her resilient spirit in the face of poverty and hardship. Soloy's illustrations capture the essence of Lewis's unique artistic style with a cheery palette that reflects the text's upbeat tone. A touching and uplifting tribute, this book emphasizes the importance of finding beauty in the everyday and persevering through life's challenges.

Reviewer: Weileen Wang | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) K-3 This small square book depicts animals of India screenprinted on textured paper. The diversity is both biological (tiger, deer, snake, etc.) and cultural, with the images coming from more than a dozen artists from different areas of India. Color choices for backgrounds complement the mostly two-color images of the animals, each given its own spread. Full art notes are appended.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2018

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by David Litchfield. Neri's pleasantly nostalgia-drenched picture-book biography explores Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's meeting of musical minds. Although it's not especially lyrical, the quite-lengthy text is laid out like verse, and this, compounded by the outsize book's almost-square dimensions, creates the look of song lyrics on a record sleeve. The heavily retro vibe is reinforced by plenty of visual motifs that leave readers feelin' groovy. Bib.

Reviewer: Nell Beram | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2018

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Claire A. Nivola. Rosenstock's moving picture-book celebration of folk artist Nek Chand (creator of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh) opens in an idyllic village in Punjab. After the Partition of India in 1947, resettled refugee Chand assuages homesickness by (illegally) clearing jungle land and building an ever-increasing number of sculptures and mosaic walls out of recycled materials. Nivola's folk-art sensibility befits the simplicity of Chand's art. Bib.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2018

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Jagdish Chitara. An unusual fusion of the African American Brer Rabbit tales with Indian folk art. Told by performance poet Flowers using elements of Black Vernacular English, the stories are illustrated in striking black, white, and red in the Mata-Ni-Pachedi tradition of textile art from Gujarat. Includes a CD of music and film that, like the handsome book, may be of greatest interest to adult folklore enthusiasts.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) YA With Mahalaxmi Das and Shantanu Das. In this large-format picture-book memoir, a Mithila artist from Bihar, India, pays tribute to his mother and the other women creators of the folk art that draws visitors to their town and that he and his disciples have adopted. A luxurious volume rich with Indian myth and Santosh Kumar Das's own creative history and illustrated with dramatic black ink art on thick recycled paper, bound by hand.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) PS Wood sculptures by Rubí Fuentes and Efraín Broa. "Bees say BZZZ BZZZ. Can you? / Las abejas dicen ZUM ZUM. ¿Puedes tú?" Each double-page spread of this bilingual animal-sounds book features traditional painted Oaxacan wood carvings of animals set against brightly colored pages. The textured backgrounds, small square shape, and traditional page borders will all catch young readers' attention and further invite them to play with language.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) 4-6 When the local House Beautification Committee sets its sights on Auggie's poor neighborhood and fines residents steeply for the appearance of their homes, it's up to Auggie to save the day with her inventive folk art. Though slightly overt, the rich-poor dynamic, especially among Auggie's classmates, will invite valuable reflection, and hopeful Auggie is easy to root for.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(4) PS Illustrated by Guillermina Aguilar & Josephina Aguilar & Irene Aguilar. Clay figures from Oaxaca, Mexico, are the focus of this bilingual counting book. Each brightly colored double-page spread features a spelled-out number on the left and a corresponding number of festive figures on the right. From one man with a balloon to ten spectators, the cheery scenes are meant to recall Oaxaca's Guelaguetza festival. The text is forced, but the lively design is appealing.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(2) K-3 Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. This picture-book biography describes artist Traylor's life--born into slavery in 1854, he worked as a sharecropper after Emancipation--and how at the age of eighty-five he first began to draw on scraps of cardboard. Christie's own flat primitive style is a perfect match for Traylor's story, but the real artistry here is in Tate's finely crafted account of Traylor's first eighty years.

Reviewer: Kathleen T. Horning | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2012

(3) 4-6 Photographs by John T. Denne. As told to Elisa Amado. This profile of New Mexico folk artist Nicholas Herrera describes his early life and later success. The text doesn't bypass his bad-boy phase culminating in the car accident (and coma) that brought about his renunciation of vice and his commitment to making art. Color reproductions of his striking paintings and sculptures, which feature cars and religious iconography, appear throughout the volume.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) PS This very simple concept book includes color names in both English and Spanish. Each word pair is illustrated with a vibrant photograph of a folk-art sculpture of an animal, all made by artists in Oaxaca, Mexico. The only disappointment is that there isn't more information about the artisans who created the pieces (the names of the animals might also have been useful).

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Jane Wooster Scott. Fifteen original oil-paint illustrations in the folk-art style depict nostalgic American landscapes through the seasons. Busy, old-fashioned scenes are full of tiny people bustling around, engaged in various activities. Readers are invited to look for miniature items in each colorful painting, including "teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy, ditzy Mitzi," a small black-and-white dog that appears in each picture.

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo

(3) PS Illustrated by Quirino Santiago & Martín Santiago. This book uses images of colorful folk-art-style Oaxaca wood carvings to illustrate opposites. The animal figures reflect the concepts both literally (e.g., a dog is first asleep then awake) and figuratively (e.g., fast and slow are represented by a rabbit and turtle, respectively). The accomplished sculptures are set against brightly colored backgrounds.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. A brief text, more impressionistic than fact-filled, introduces readers to the self-taught artist Clementine Hunter (1886–1988), who "didn't wait" for perfect conditions in order to paint her memories of plantation life. Illustrator Evans's canvas resembles the old boards on which Hunter sometimes painted, while the rich colors recall Hunter's own palette. Author's note. Bib.

Reviewer: Henrietta M. Smith

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Warren Kimble. Folk artist Kimble provides pictorial accompaniment to the familiar patriotic song. Each arresting image is rendered in acrylics on distressed wood, and the surface's unique textural qualities lend depth and intensity to the scene or object depicted. The text's ridiculously large font size is the only misstep. Music, song notes, and flag facts are appended.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(4) YA Eye on Art series. This series is uneven in coverage; some books (e.g., Anime, Computer) achieve in-depth (though densely presented) exploration of their topics, while others (e.g., Architecture) are, by virtue of their broader subject matter, more superficial. All titles provide historical context, connections to current trends, and numerous sidebars focusing on ongoing debates, significant artworks, or notable artists. Reproductions or color photographs appear throughout. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Eye on Art titles: Folk Art, Anime, Computer Animation, Surrealism, and Architecture.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Moisés Jiménez & Armando Jiménez. From armadillo to zedonk, this book leads readers through an alphabetic list of animals in English and Spanish (including Spanish-only letters such as ñ and rr). Information about some of the more exotic animals (e.g., vicuña) would have been helpful, but the colorful book is really a showcase for photos of traditional wood sculptures by folk artists from Oaxaca, Mexico.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(3) 4-6 This book examines the lives and accomplishments of five relatively unknown individuals who have made significant artistic contributions to their communities. A Chinese opera singer, a boat builder, a corona maker, a weaver, and a costumed Mardi Gras performer tell their own stories. Enhanced with photographs, this book celebrates the unique skills and artistic endeavors of unsung people. Reading list.

Reviewer: Luther B. Clegg