Book Description
for Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg, Sandra Jordan, and Robert Andrew Parker
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A lyrical, affecting narrative describes artist Jackson Pollack at work in a picture book portrait of the distinctive American artist. Authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan let readers see Pollack in the act of creation as they imagine him creating one of his masterpieces, Lavendar Mist: “At last he stands. He chooses a stick and dips it into a can of syrupy paint. Slowly he circles the canvas, stepping around the edges, straddling the corners. Black lines form a tangled web.” As they describe the artist at work, they also weave in his influences, from the wide open sky of the West where he grew up, to Native American sand painting, to the hours he spends staring at the gulls on the beach near his home. They write about how Pollock differed from other artists, and how his work left many confused and alienated. And they capture the passion and drive of this creative and self-demanding individual. Robert Andrew Parker’s masterful illustrations are a perfect complement to the prose, embodying the artist’s energy and frenzy one moment, his exhaustion, or thoughtful repose, the next. Winner, CCBC Caldecott Award Discussion (Ages 7-10)
CCBC Choices 2003 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2003. Used with permission.