My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter

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Summary: An Artist Who Saw the World in a Unique Way.....
Review: Georgia O'Keeffe was always different..."I did things other people don't do." She didn't dress like the other young girls, or wear her hair in braids, and she was content to be alone..."I was satisfied to be all by myself." From an early age knew she wanted to be an artist..."Maybe I could make something beautiful..." Jeanette Winter takes us on the journey of Georgia O'Keeffe's remarkable life, from her birth in Wisconsin in 1887, to art school in Chicago and New York, and then on to her years of painting in Texas, New York City, and finally the New Mexican desert. Her simple, spare prose, complete with quotations from Georgia's own writings, is engaging, and complemented by charming and evocative illustrations that enhance the story. Georgia O'Keeffe loved the sky, sunset, red hills, flowers, and bones, and she painted the world around her BIG, so that people would see it the way she did. Perfect for kids 6-10, My Name Is Georgia is a lovely introductory biography that will whet the appetite of young art lovers everywhere, and brings home the important message...Never be afraid to follow your dream.

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Summary: A portrait of the celebrated American artist Georgia O'Keefe
Review: The more you know about the artwork of Georgia O'Keefe, the more you will enjoy this portrait by Jeanette Winter, who works many of the artist's famous paintings into this lyrical book. At the end, Winter shows O'Keefe working on the biggest of her big paintings, "Sky Above Clouds IV." Other paintings, such as "Pelvis with the Distance," are hinted at as Winter explores how O'Keefe painted objects usually ignored by artists. Consequently, "My Name Is Georgia" is not the first book I would recommend to a young reader interested in O'Keefe's artwork, but certainly anyone who finds something special in her larger than life paintings of flowers or the skulls of cows, will enjoy Winter's portrait. Winter offers a few lines of text on each page with a square painting in which something--clouds, birds, the feet of the artist--extends beyond the borders. Like O'Keefe, these paintings off up vibrant colors that are as much an homage to the artist as the textual portrait.

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Summary: Clear and Simple Biography of an inspirational woman.
Review: This is an aexcellent book for any elementary school teaching incorporating art history into any classroom. The illustrations are bright and full of color, and communicate O'Keefe's mature style. The story starts with Georgia as an independent young girl and follows her throughout her life, all in an easy to understand plot.