Defined By Childhood

There is no denying the influence of our natural world, the place in which we live and our family during our childhood; ultimately determining the way we live our entire lives.  We can select consciously or unconsciously to emulate those sensory perceptions we experience.  Decisions in opposition to those impressions can also direct the course we take.

Beginning her author's note Patricia MacLachlan says:

Why do painters paint what they do?  Do they paint what they see or what they remember?  The great painter Henri Matisse's life story may have some answers.

In her newest picture book, The Iridescence of Birds:  A Book About Henri Matisse (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press), MacLachlan traces the paths followed as a child and as an adult by this accomplished artist.  Hadley Hooper, illustrator of Here Come the Girl Scouts!, pictures the text

using a combination of relief printmaking and digital techniques.


If you were a boy named Henri Matisse who lived
in a dreary town in northern France where the skies were gray   ...

Let's pause for a minute.  What would YOU do?  Have you figured it out?  Henri, as a young boy, chose to wish for color and the warmth of the sun.

His mother painted plates full of bright hues which were hung on the walls in their home.  She brought the outside inside decorating them with flora and fauna from their surroundings.  Henri helped her by blending basic shades of paint to create other colors.

After a trip to the market, buying fruits and flowers, it was Henri who placed them around their home.  Their town, a mill town, had people who wove vibrant bolts of silk in an array of patterns.  Perhaps to bring more warmth into their home, his mother would hang red rugs on the walls and place them on the dirt floor of their parlor.  Henri noticed the same red on the feet of his pigeons.  He marveled at the shifting shades reflected on their feathers.

In the final nine pages we are offered a comparison.  We are given gifts.  We see his youth mirrored in his lifetime works which have and will continue to stand the test of time.


Clearly Patricia MacLachlan is familiar with the life and art of Henri Matisse as evidenced by her narrative.  Its integrity, a single thought, runs through the pages like a meadow brook, quiet, clear and with purpose.  Her mastery exemplified, she writes a string of poetic ifs, important elements in Henri's life, leading readers to the singular outcomes.  It's so beautiful I keep reading it over and over.


Upon opening the dust jacket we see a single illustration conceived by Hadley Hooper.  On the front, through an open doorway boy Henri is watching his pigeons outside in the yard.  On the left, the back, a grown-up Henri is seated in a chair sketching outside another open doorway.  It's a lovely picture capturing the focus of the writing.  The red pigeon legs, the red chair in which Henri is seated and the red box for the title mirror those splashes of color from Henri's life.  On the title page, a pale dusty green background highlights the fonts and Henri walking with three pigeons following behind him.

All of the visuals extend across two pages in splendid, textured varied perspectives.  Easy but explicit lines define all the parts of each illustration.  We see Henri walking through the darkened streets of his town, hanging plates as his mother paints, taking delight in mixing the paints, arranging fruits and flowers, watching the fabric weavers and tending and watching his pigeons.  When the text shifts to the masterpieces created by the older Henri, Hooper places the young Henri in each of those pictures watching.

One of my many favorite illustrations is of Henri feeding his pigeons.  Shades of blue and green with some red dominate this picture.  A smiling Henri is holding a dish to one of three pigeons on the roof of the dovecote, as two others inside look at him.  Noticeable in this visual, in all of them, is the cheerfulness of Henri.  Each is as uplifting as the narrative.


The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse written by Patricia MacLachlan with pictures by Hadley Hooper is a breathtaking look at the artist's life.  In words and illustrations with impeccable pacing, readers come to understand the value each aspect of our childhood plays in shaping us as adults.  This is a tribute to the artistic brilliance of Henri Matisse who lived his art and then shared it with the world. An author's note, an illustrator's note and a selected bibliography are included.

For more information about Hadley Hooper and her work please follow the link embedded in her name taking you to her website.  Eight images from the book are available for your viewing at the publisher's website.  This title is set to be released on October 14, 2014.  Don't miss it! UPDATE: Check out this interview of Hadley Hooper at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast hosted by Julie Danielson on September 30, 2014.

This review/recommendation is based upon an Advance Reader's Edition which I received from my favorite independent book store, McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan.

Please spend some time at Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by Alyson Beecher to see what other outstanding nonfiction titles have been listed by bloggers participating in the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Cutting Up Color

In my closet, a stash of more than thirty years of teaching ideas and lessons, is a well-worn flat brown paper bag.  Inside are treasures gathered from students ranging in ages from kindergarten through seniors in high school.  Each item is crafted by hand, some more experienced than others, into the beauty their minds imagined.  Every year these gems have hung from the ceiling in my libraries swirling and swaying in the currents of air.  No two alike, they mirror real snowflakes drifting down outside.

A little more than a year ago, I reviewed Colorful Dreamer: the Story of Artist Henri Matisse (November, 2012) by Marjorie Blain Parker with illustrations by Holly Berry.  In August of 2013 author illustrator Jeanette Winter chose to focus on the later years of Henri Matisse's life in her release titled Henri's Scissors (Beach Lane Books).  Inspired by a visit to the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. where she saw the original pieces Matisse created, she shares with readers his final creative years.

In a small weaving town in France, a young boy named Henri-Emile-Benoit Matisse watched his mother paint china.  He wanted to paint too.

Henri did draw and paint but it isn't until as a young man, an illness confining him to a hospital bed, he flourishes as an artist.  Once well, he abandons his career in law and paints and paints and paints...for years.  Matisse is now an old man.  Again Matisse is so ill he cannot leave his bed.  All he can do is sleep and dream.

Recuperating enough to be awake more than sleeping, Henri realizes he will be spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair or in bed. Little by little, Matisse gets stronger; strong enough to draw, strong enough to make art another way.

Using scissors he cuts shapes from painted paper.  On his walls hang a world filled with color, filled with life.  As his ideas grow, so do the shapes.  In his hands Henri's scissors were magical.


Readers of Jeanette Winter's work know she uses few words to narrate her stories but those words she chooses to use, convey all we need to know.  Her words fill us with the emotional essence of a person.  We come to understand and know their purpose and passions.  To add authenticity to Henri Matisse's story, Winter places quotes from his writing within her text.  Here is but one example.

Matisse cut paper all day.
"My pleasure 
in cutting things out
grows even greater.
Why didn't I think of
it earlier?"
His assistants painted paper for him all day.


If you open the matching jacket and cover of this book, Jeanette Winter gives readers an overview of Matisse's work in his younger years on the left.  Against a dark background of blue, lighter pinpoints surround Henri, palette and brush in hand, looking at four pieces of his work. To the right, although he is years older, there is a sense of joy, of lightness, to the picture of him cutting out shapes, a cat and bird by his side.   Opening and closing endpapers in pale golden yellow feature quotes, Henri's hand holding his scissors and stars.

That same hue of yellow creates wide frames around smaller, single page square illustrations when Winter is acquainting us with Henri.  Complementary shades of blue, green, rose, purple and white across the remaining two-page pictures provide the canvas for her acrylic and cut paper visuals.  Her text follows the flow of her illustrations.

Depending on the moment she wishes to depict, Winter might provide readers with a more wide-angle view following it with a closer perspective.  In the final four pages Winter imagines Henri Matisse passing from earth into the heavens, wondering about his current use of his scissors.  It is utterly lovely.
One of my favorite illustrations is of Matisse lying in bed, arms extended as he holds a pole with chalk tied to the end.  He is drawing the faces of his grandchildren on the ceiling.


The value of biographical works such as Henri's Scissors written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter is to show readers the true measure of a person's life no matter their age.  It highlights pursuing your passion even if you need to alter the means of attaining your goals.  This delightful book comes with my highest recommendation.  If you follow this link to the publisher's website you can see one of my favorite pictures.

I am excited to be participating in Alyson Beecher's 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted at her blog Kid Lit Frenzy.  Make sure you stop over there to see all the other nonfiction picture books showcased by other bloggers.