Kid Artists: True Tales of Childhood from Creative Legends

by David Stabler, Doogie Horner (Illustrator)

Overview

Hilarious childhood biographies and full-color illustrations reveal how Leonardo da Vinci, Beatrix Potter, Keith Haring, and other great artists in history coped with regular-kid problems.

Every great artist started out as a kid. Forget the awards, the sold-out museum exhibitions, and the timeless masterpieces. When the world’s most celebrated artists were growing up, they had regular-kid problems just like you. 

• Jackson Pollock’s family moved constantly—he lived in eight different cities before he was sixteen years old. 
• Georgia O’Keeffe lived in the shadow of her “perfect” older brother Francis. 
• And Jean-Michel Basquiat triumphed over poverty to become one of the world’s most influential artists. 

Kid Artists tells their stories and more with full-color cartoon illustrations on nearly every page. Other subjects include Claude Monet, Jacob Lawrence, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Beatrix Potter, Yoko Ono, Dr. Seuss, Emily Carr, Keith Haring, Charles Schulz, and Louise Nevelson.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594748967
Publisher:	Quirk Publishing
Publication date:	08/09/2016
Series:	Kid Legends Series , #3
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	386,315
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	1010L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Author David Stabler and illustrator Doogie Horner have created several books together, including Kid Presidents (Quirk, 2014), Kid Athletes (Quirk, 2015), Kid Artists (Quirk, 2016), and Kid Authors (Quirk, 2017).

Read an Excerpt

Charles Schulz: The Shy Guy Long before he created Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang, Charles “Sparky” Schulz was just a quiet kid with a sketchpad who felt uncomfortable sharing his drawings with others. Only by overcoming his shyness could he make the leap from secret doodler to superstar cartoonist.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Kid Artists"
by .
Copyright © 2016 David Stabler.
Excerpted by permission of Quirk Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

05/16/2016
Stabler recounts the early lives of more than a dozen artists including Andy Warhol, Beatrix Potter, Yoko Ono, Keith Haring, and Vincent van Gogh in this companion to Kid Presidents and Kid Athletes. Throughout, he draws loose connections between the subjects’ childhood experiences, whether positive or negative, and their artistic development. Ted Geisel “warned about the dangers of discrimination” in books like The Sneetches in part because of anti-German prejudice he faced during WWII; Frida Kahlo’s time spent recovering from illness and injury led her to begin creating self-portraits. Memorably weird childhood moments—Jackson Pollock accidentally had part of a finger chopped off and then eaten by a rooster—are likely to stick with readers, as will Horner’s impish cartoons. Ages 9–12. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Lively glimpses of formative moments and budding talents.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A fun and useful addition, especially for aspiring writers and class projects.”—School Library Journal

“This is an ideal gift for aspiring young writers who may need proof that even the most famous authors had to start somewhere.”—Shelf Awareness for Readers

“Full of real information, but the author made it fun and funny … I would recommend this book for all people who read books and want to know interesting information about authors, and also for people who want to be authors themselves.”—Michael, age 9
 
Praise for the Kid Legends series:
“Just like history class, only hilarious.”—Tim Federle, author of Better Nate Than Ever, on Kid Presidents
 
“Outstanding... Inspiring and entertaining.”—Booklist, starred review, on Kid Athletes

“With cartoonish illustrations that will attract fans of Jeff Kinney’s The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Rachel Renée Russell’s The Dork Diaries, this informative offering leaves no presidential childhood rock unturned.”—School Library Journal, on Kid Presidents

“Impressively diverse.”—Booklist, on Kid Artists
 
“A heartening reminder that 17 unconventional greats—not to mention all the rest—started out as children too.”—Kirkus Reviews, on Kid Artists by David Stabler
 
“Filled with cute illustrations. . . [and] mini-biographies that are interesting, funny, and, most importantly, relevant to kids today.”—Geek Dad, on Kid Scientists

“A funny and inspiring book for children and adults.”—New York Journal of Books, on Kid Scientists

“I can think of no better way to convey to children that their heroes were once just like them.”—Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star, on Kid Scientists

“Memorably weird childhood moments. . . are likely to stick with readers, as will Horner’s impish cartoons.”—Publishers Weekly, on Kid Artists

From the Publisher

2016-04-13
For budding artists, here's a heartening reminder that 17 unconventional greats—not to mention all the rest—started out as children too.The pseudonymous Stabler (Robert Schnakenberg in real life) adopts a liberal admissions policy for his latest gathering of anecdotal profiles (Kid Presidents, 2014, etc.). In a chapter on the influence of nature and wildlife on early artistic visions, Leonardo da Vinci and the young Vincent van Gogh rub shoulders with Beatrix Potter and Emily Carr; in another focusing on overcoming shyness or other personal, social, or economic obstacles, Jackson Pollock hangs out with Charles Schulz, Yoko Ono, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In a third chapter that highlights the importance of a supportive parent, teacher, or other cheerleader, fathers do for prodigious young Pablo Picasso and polio-stricken Frida Kahlo, his mother for Andy Warhol, art instructors for Jacob Lawrence and Keith Haring. The author owns an easy, readable style, and though he leaves out quite a lot—Diego Rivera goes unmentioned in the Kahlo entry, nor do van Gogh's suicide, Basquiat's heroin addiction, or anyone's sexual orientation come up—he's chosen his subjects with an eye toward diversity of background, upbringing, and, eventually, style and media. Horner lightens the overall tone further with cartoon vignettes of caricatured but recognizable figures.Noncanonical entries make this a natural companion or follow-up for Kathleen Krull's essential Lives of the Artists, illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt (1995). (bibliography) (Collective biography. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews