  | Sleeping gypsy Author: Gerstein, Mordicai | |
| Price: $6.50 | ||
Summary:
An imagined story about Henri Rousseau's famous painting tells why a lion and a gypsy are in the painting and a lizard, a rabbit, a turtle, and other animals are not.
Download a Teacher's Guide
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: LG Reading Level: 3.70 Points: .5 Quiz: 184684 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (-) (08/15/16)
Booklist (09/15/16)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/11/16)
The Hornbook (+) (00/11/16)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 09/15/2016 An African girl wearing a striped robe strides across the desert carrying a clay bottle of water, a satchel of food, and a mandolin. At night she eats, plays a song, and falls asleep on the sand. While she slumbers, a group of animals gather around to investigate. When an artist (Henri Rousseau) arrives to paint the scene, all the animals except the lion critique his work, causing the artist to remove them from the scene. In the morning, Rousseau awakens in Paris, ready to finish his masterpiece, which he titles The Sleeping Gypsy. Rousseau’s mysterious work has long intrigued critics and viewers, and Gerstein isn’t the first to suggest it has dreamlike qualities. The Caldecott winner’s acrylic-and-digital artwork pays homage to Rousseau with eerie and meditative spreads. The animals appear in vibrant colors that echo the stripes in the girl’s robe, and Gerstein’s moon has an expressive (and changing) face that reflects the story’s action. Pair with Michelle Markel’s The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau (2012) for another take on this iconic artist. - Copyright 2016 Booklist.
