Colorful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse

This picture-book biography opens in a dreary French village where, compared to simple, hard-working villagers like his parents, Henri Matisse didn't "excel at much of anything -- except, perhaps, dreaming." This dreaming is brought vividly to life in illustrations that depict the village in black, white, and gray except for the electrifying pops of color that represent Henri's dreams. The text, too, mirrors the artist's emotional state, describing with glum language the morose years as a misunderstood son and bored law clerk (which "tied his stomach in knots") and then a period bedridden in a hospital. Once Henri discovers painting, the diction becomes more lively ("He picked up the paintbrush and was transported into paradise"). As the story describes Matisse's years as an artist, Berry's illustrations never go back to the original drab palette, instead directly mimicking Matisse's Fauvist use of color and maturing style. Spreads of his time on the French coast nod to specific, well-known Matisse still-life and landscape pieces, while spreads relating his older years during which he "painted" with colored paper incorporate -- then move entirely to -- collage. Though Parker's lyrical text and Berry's impressive mixed-media pictures fully encompass Matisse's chronology, aspirations, talents, and style, an appended note furthers young readers' understanding of one of modern art's preeminent figures. katrina hedeen