Toussaint L'ouverture: The Fight for Haiti's Freedom - Hardcover

Myers, Walter Dean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689801262 ISBN 13: 9780689801266

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1996

Synopsis

The liberation of Haiti under Toussaint L'Ouverture, a freed slave who became general of the slave army, which rose against the French in 1791, is told in exciting, factual narrative and enhanced by bold, full-color paintings.

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Reviews

Grade 3-6-In the late 1930s, Lawrence painted a series of pictures that documented the oppression of the Haitian people at the end of the 18th century and their eventual liberation in 1804. The paintings are used here to tell readers about the man who lead that revolution. Toussaint L'Ouverture's story is stirring in itself, but paired with Lawrence's paintings, it becomes absolutely compelling. The artist's muted colors and stylized figures show the pain of the oppressed people and the glory of their fight. Myers's understated text is elegantly written, letting the brilliant artwork take center stage. The historical context is clearly explained and the narrative is lively and accessible. This is a wonderful introduction to a man who deserves to be remembered for his brave actions.
Melissa Hudak, North Suburban District Library, Roscoe, IL
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As in her Life Around the Lake (coauthored with Gloria Soto), Presilla again examines a little-known culture by means of its textile arts. This time her subject is the Cuna Indians, who inhabit the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama, and the avenue for exploration is the mola, a vibrant cloth panel with embroidered and appliqued designs. Outsiders frame molas as art; Cuna women sew them into blouses. The author's language is often as vivid as the painstakingly stitched, densely hued fabric art; she notes that from the air the San Blas Islands "seem no bigger than jellyfish floating lazily in the shiny turquoise and cobalt blue waters of the Caribbean Sea." Cuna women create the molas; as the author explains in an endnote, the high prices these works fetch from outsiders buttresses the dominant role women have traditionally played in Cuna society. Aided by crisply detailed photographs of molas, Presilla paints a memorable portrait of "women who wear their lives." Ages 7-up. (Oct.) TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE: The Fight for Haiti's Freedom Walter Dean Myers, illus. by Jacob Lawrence. S&S, $16 ISBN 0-689-80126-2 As a young Harlem Renaissance artist, Lawrence's first success was a series of 41 narrative paintings chronicling the life of Haitian activist Toussaint L'Ouverture, who in 1791 led a rebellion against the French planters. Lawrence's stylized tempura art, painted predominantly in muted earth hues, is punctuated by luminous splashes of white and red. His striking compositions recreate the drama of how the self-taught Toussaint became the revolt's leader, organizing workers into "a mighty army of liberation" to abolish slavery on both the French and Spanish sides of the island. They also convey Toussaint's despair in prison, where he died before Haiti's liberation in 1804. The battle scenes are a dynamic clatter of spiky, angular shapes and flying hooves; more quiet panels depict Toussaint studiously drafting battle plans and ships ominously arriving from France. Though Myers (Brown Angels) makes some broad leaps that may puzzle kids, he skillfully presents Toussaint's life story in succinct episodes that correspond to the paintings. His clean, effective text supports Lawrence's more complex and powerful paintings, both urbane and elemental in style. Ages 8-12. (Oct.) FYI: The artist whose paintings illustrate this book is himself the subject of a picture book (reviewed below).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Myers (Glorious Angels, 1995, etc.), inspired by a series of 1930s paintings by Lawrence, pens a straightforward narrative, subtitled ``The Fight for Haiti's Freedom,'' about the freedom fighter Toussaint L'Ouverture. The story of the leader in the 1791 rebellion of black slaves against owners on the island that is now Haiti is well known. Through his victories, he abolished slavery on both the French and Spanish parts of the island by 1800. However, Napoleon sent many French troops, and L'Ouverture, duped by one of his generals, was captured and died in a French prison. The fight for freedom continued, however, and Haiti became independent in 1804. In an introduction, Lawrence recalls hearing, as a child in Harlem, street orators tell L'Ouverture's story; he responded with 41 stark, stylized paintings in a somber, matte palette, all reproduced here. Myers makes the story accessible, underplaying the text in light of the expressive paintings. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 4^-8. Like Lawrence's Harriet and the Promised Land (1993) and The Great Migration (1993), this book pulls together a stirring series of narrative paintings that tell a powerful story. With the pictures, Myers has written a biography of L'Ouverture and an overview of the struggle he led to free his people from slavery. The paintings were first exhibited in 1940 and are now housed at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans. Rhythmic and intense, in strong shades of brown and contrasting white, the 41 frames are filled with movement and confrontation. After harsh scenes of plantation slavery, there are battle scenes with people marching and on horseback; in contrast is the desolate view of the captured leader dying alone in a French prison cell. Lawrence's narrative art style has been compared to the patterns of quilting and the vigor of muralist art. There's an immediacy to his storytelling, and this inspiring account of a freedom struggle will move middle-graders and older students as art, history, and biography. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0689801262
• ISBN 13: 9780689801266
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Lawrence Jacob
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40