Li'l Sis & Uncle Willie - Hardcover

Everett, Gwen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847814629 ISBN 13: 9780847814626

Publisher: Rizzoli, 1993

Synopsis

Surveys the life of African-American artist William H. Johnson as his young niece might have told it. The artist's paintings provide the illustrations.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 2-5-- When Uncle Willie visits her South Carolina home, L'il Sis begins a close relationship with the warm, understanding man that endures throughletters for many years. Uncle Willie is William H. Johnson, an African-American painter whose work (from the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution) illustrates and is the inspiration for the story. While it is unusual for a text to be written to accompany illustrations, in this case, it works beautifully. Johnson's paintings are varied in style from a strongly textured almost impressionistic self-portrait, to a geometric, flat-toned picture of children playing by a dock, to a lively and imaginative primitive Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. He paints both historical and contemporary subjects such as L'il Sis and her doll, life in pre-World War II Harlem, and the hanging of Nat Turner. Through his art, readers and Sis come to see some of the harshness and beauty in the African-American experience. Sis's first-person narration brings the story to a child's level, explaining such things as the Underground Railroad. The warmth of the special uncle-niece relationship shines through and makes readers care about Uncle Willie, his artwork, and the life and places he painted. --Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Johnson (1901-70) was a black painter, born in South Carolina and trained in New York, who lived for 12 years in Denmark, married a Danish woman, and (after her death) spent his last 20 years in a mental institution. Over 1,000 of his bold, brilliantly expressive paintings are now in the National Museum of American Art. Everett, an art educator at the museum, tells the artist's story through a careful selection of 27 of his paintings (beautifully reproduced) linked by a slightly fictionalized text narrated by Johnson's niece. The device works surprisingly well, allowing Everett to describe the man himself as an occasional, somewhat exotic, but well-loved visitor to his hometown, and to give background on some of the subjects he drew from his own life and the black experience--including cotton- pickers, Harlem dancers, and a charming portrait of Li'l Sis at age six, with her doll. There are also a few b&w photos. It would have been nice to know more about the sizes of the paintings and the mediums used; still, an excellent introduction to an outstanding artist who deserves wider recognition. (Nonfiction. 6-12) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0847814629
• ISBN 13: 9780847814626
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32