A gorgeously illustrated picture book biography about the fascinating life of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, from Michelle Markel and Amanda Hall, the acclaimed team behind The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau.
Ever since she was a little girl, Leonora Carrington loved to draw on walls, in books, on paper and she loved the fantastic tales her grandmother told that took her to worlds that shimmered beyond this one, where legends became real.
Leonora’s parents wanted her to become a proper English lady, but there was only one thing she wanted, even if it was unsuitable: to be an artist. In London, she discovered a group of artists called surrealists, who were stunning the world with their mysterious creations. This was the kind of art she had to make. This was the kind of person she had to be.
From life in Paris creating art alongside Max Ernst, to Mexico where she met Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Leonora’s life became intertwined with powerful events and people that shaped the twentieth century.
Out of This World is the powerful, stunningly told story of Leonora Carrington, a girl who made art out of her imagination and created some of the most enigmatic and startling works of the last eighty years.
About the Author
Michelle Markel loves writing narrative nonfiction. She's the author of Brave Girl, which won the Bank Street Flora Stieglitz Straus Award and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award for Younger Children, and was also chosen as an NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book. Her recent titles are Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls Are Born to Lead (on the Amelia Bloomer Project List of feminist literature) and Balderdash!: John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children's Books. She lives in Woodland Hills, California.
About the Illustrator
Amanda Hall is an international award-winning British illustrator, particularly renowned for her wonderfully decorative and colourful children's picture book and educational illustrations. < Out of This World is her second picture book about the life and work of a significant figure from art history. The first-also written by Michelle Markel-is The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau. Amanda exhibits her original illustrations at the Chris Beetles Gallery in St James's, London.
Industry Reviews
"Spectral fairies, soaring women, an infant in a luminous crescent-moon cradle, a human-faced hyena-these are a few of the wondrous images filling the pages of this colorful picture-book biography of surrealist painter Leonora Carrington." -- Booklist (starred review)
"A striking picture book biography." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Markel's telling-evocative and poetic-feels enchanted... [her] gorgeous description of Carrington's paintings is the perfect summation of the extraordinariness found in all females." -- New York Times Book Review
"An empowering introduction that demands parallel examination of Carrington's own work." -- Kirkus Reviews
"A reminder that rebellion comes in different forms." -- School Library Journal
"A glorious look at a woman artist who did exactly what she wanted to do at a time when few were able to do so." -- The Horn Book
Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: "Smart and snappy...as inspiring as it is delightful." -- Booklist (starred review)
Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: "Concisely outlines Clinton's journey from activist to First Lad of Arkansas and on to Washington, D.C....Pham's (the Freckleface Strawberry series) watercolors are steeped in period detail." -- Publishers Weekly
Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: "Both for fun and education...go-girl power and a good read." -- Kirkus Reviews
Praise for HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: SOME GIRLS ARE BORN TO LEAD: "[An] honest and open portrayal" -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: "The zingy images masterfully (and appropriately) incorporate fabric and stitches as well as old images of checks and time cards ... This book has fighting spirit in spades-you go, Clara!" -- Booklist (starred review)
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: "Readers are treated to solid information with a buoyant message about standing up for what is right. Sweet has created an outstanding backdrop for Markel's text with a vibrant collage of watercolor, gouache, blank dress-pattern paper, bookkeeping pages, stitches, and fabric pieces." -- School Library Journal (starred review)
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: "Sweet incorporates images of assorted fabrics and stitch patterns into her tender illustrations, brightening the lives of workers whose reality was bleak." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: "In her simple but powerful text Markel shows how multiple arrests, serious physical attacks, and endless misogyny failed to deter this remarkable woman as she set off on her lifelong path as a union activist." -- The Horn Book
Praise for BRAVE GIRL: "Markel ably brings to life the plight of immigrant garment workers and Clara's courageous advocacy." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
