A Room of Your Own: A Story Inspired by Virginia Woolf's Famous Essay

by Beth Kephart, Julia Breckenreid (Illustrator)

Overview

From award-winning creators—author Beth Kephart and artist Julia Breckenreid—A Room of Your Own is a picture book about the places we go to create, inspired by Virginia Woolf and her noted essay.

Sometimes Virginia Woolf wrote her stories in a garden shed. Sometimes she wrote them among stacks of books in a cool basement. And you? Where do you go to think, to dream, to be? The shade beneath a tall tree? The brick step on a city stoop? The cozy spot beneath the kitchen table? Or inside the night’s deep dark? Not all rooms require four walls and a roof.

Inspired by the writer Virginia Woolf and her celebrated essay, “A Room of One’s Own,” A Room of Your Own is about the importance of claiming a space for oneself.

“Colorful watercolors in spot art and larger scenes depict diverse girls and boys under a tree, on a neighborhood sidewalk, at the kitchen table, under a bedsheet fort, and in more spaces.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Together, images and text combine for an unequivocal ode to the necessity of being oneself, and of having time alone.” —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951836382
Publisher:	Abrams Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/09/2022
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Beth Kephart is an award-winning author of books for adults, young adults, and children, including And I Paint It: Henriette Wyeth’s World and Beautiful Useful Things: What William Morris Made, both published by Cameron Kids. She lives in Pennsylvania. Julia Breckenreid is an award-winning fine artist and illustrator whose books include Dorothy & Herbert: An Ordinary Couple and Their Extraordinary Collection of Art, published by Cameron Kids. She lives in Toronto.

Editorial Reviews

07/04/2022

“Where do you go/ to think,/ to dream,/ to be?” Taking Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own as a jumping-off point, Kephart employs rhythmic lines to prompt readers’ own reflections on the possibility of personal space. With the support of Breckenreid’s lightly surrealistic pictures—which draw on motifs of blooms, books, and butterflies—room is interpreted expansively as “the shade beneath a tree,” “the cool/ beside the tail of the cat,/ behind the tablecloth,/ where nobody has found you yet,” and “the cone of light/ inside a bedsheet fort.” While depictions of Woolf open and close the dreamy book, and cameos of her appear throughout, most scenes present children of varying skin tones enjoying time to themselves in different types of homes. Together, images and text combine for an unequivocal ode to the necessity of being oneself, and of having time alone. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Colorful watercolors in spot art and larger scenes depict diverse girls and boys under a tree, on a neighborhood sidewalk, at the kitchen table, under a bedsheet fort, and in more spaces."—Kirkus Reviews

"Together, images and text combine for an unequivocal ode to the necessity of being oneself, and of having time alone."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2022-07-13
Kephart uses Virginia Woolf’s essay to inspire children to find their own creative spaces.

In the opening spread of this picture book, Woolf, referenced only as “she,” steps out of her house, reduced to the size of a dollhouse, and appears in different spots in the garden. Lyrical text explains that “on and on and on she goes, / to that room she calls her own.” In the next scene—a soft, surreal one with the roof peeled back from her tiny house, with an oversized Woolf sitting up and sticking out of it and books flying away like birds—Kephart continues to explain that Woolf’s room is “her place to think. / Her place to dream. Her place to be.” From here, the author encourages readers to find their own rooms or creative spaces. Colorful watercolors in spot art and larger scenes depict diverse children under a tree, on a neighborhood sidewalk, at the kitchen table, under a bedsheet fort, and in more spaces. Serving as a guide, Woolf continues to make appearances along with the children until the last spread, which shows her beginning to write her influential feminist essay. A concluding author’s note finally alleviates potential confusion and vague references by identifying Woolf and her essay in text and a photograph. Still, though both the text and visuals are beautiful, the concept is a bit heady for the target audience, and the overall sentiment likely won’t connect with them. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A well-intentioned but superficial take on Woolf’s famous piece. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews