Mr. Cornell's Dream Boxes

May 26, 2014
Winter follows her picture-book biographies of artists including Matisse, O’Keeffe, and Rivera with a look at reclusive artist Joseph Cornell, who made glass-fronted wooden boxes filled with delicate, surreal collections of objects—star charts, cutouts of parrots and ballerinas, marbles in wineglasses—all crafted in the cellar of his home on the marvelously named Utopia Parkway. “He saw only dreams and memories, and he filled his boxes with them.” Winter connects specific memories from Cornell’s life with the creations they grew into, showing each memory in a cloud of periwinkle blue on left-hand pages (“Mr. Cornell remembered blowing soap bubbles”) opposite the box it inspired (a pipe emitting what look like white seashells). While Winter’s lyrical prose is true to the gentle strangeness of Cornell’s work, the digital artwork, done in the style of flat tempera painting, doesn’t convey the fine detail of the boxes, and no photographs of them are included. An afterword supplies more information (Cornell arranged his last exhibition for children, hanging the boxes low for them to see), but the few photos there focus on the viewers, not the work. Ages 4–8. Agent: Susan Cohen, Writers House.

July 1, 2014
A gentle homage to artist Joseph Cornell explores artistic inspiration for very young readers and listeners.Winter presents Cornell in the context of home on Utopia Parkway: caring for his brother upstairs, dreaming in his backyard, assembling his unique shadow boxes in the cellar of the house in Queens, New York, where artists and collectors eventually come to visit, as the author's note reveals. Winter offers a look at a form of artistic expression within reach of her audience, explaining that Cornell was neither painter nor sculptor, yet he created "WONDERLANDS covered in glass." She charmingly discloses that Cornell loved sweets and imagines child readers or listeners as one of the neighbors Cornell might have invited to a special exhibit of his boxes. Winter's digitally rendered art is delicate and inviting. Images repeat and transform from imagined glimpses through the windows of Cornell's house to a view into the artist's dreams and memories. The plain outlines of his house are overlaid with images of a swan and a moon in one illustration, bright birds in another. She conveys the dreamlike quality of his work, even when strange or disquieting: "He remembered learning about stars, / and how the endless sky scared him."Winter captures in two dimensions a great deal of the evocative nature of Cornell's three-dimensional work in a way that will be intriguing for the very young. (Picture book/biography. 3-7)

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July 1, 2014

K-Gr 3-Finally, a children's picture book about the artist Joseph Cornell. And for someone whose work was so connected to childhood, memory, and dreams, it's about time. For much of the 20th century, Cornell made shadow boxes intricately filled with a flotsam of ephemera and found objects. While his work was exhibited at the premiere galleries in New York City, Cornell went out of his way to connect with a younger audience, sometimes even giving shadow boxes to neighborhood children, who would return the "toys" in exchange for others when they were done playing with them. Winter's playful and collagelike illustrations re-create many of his well-known works in a style that complements Cornell's own aesthetic. Succinct text details his life in Queens, NY, and the recurring themes of his art. While concepts and theories about art and artists can often be difficult to present to young children, this picture-book biography is particularly accessible and can serve as an ideal gateway to more advanced books on the subject. Teachers and librarians can use this work to explore a unique contribution at the forefront of modern art; children will be inspired to dream and create on their own.-Billy Parrott, New York Public Library

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2014
Grades K-3 Award-winning author and illustrator Winter (Henri's Scissors, 2013) offers yet another picture-book biography of a notable artist. This time, shy, self-taught Joseph Cornell, who spent his whole life in the same house on Utopia Parkway, in Queens, New York, takes center stage. In brief sentences full of facts such as he loved sweets, Winter sets out to describe what a child living on Utopia Parkway might see: You might have seen Mr. Cornell sitting in his backyard under a tree, eyes closed, dreaming. Dreams and memories were Cornell's inspiration for his iconic boxes, and here they take up whole pages in fuzzy blue tones next to artistic representations of the boxes they inspired. Meanwhile, blocky, childlike illustrations of trees, houses, and other objects litter the crisp white pages. An author's note about the last exhibition Cornell attended, a show held exclusively for children, makes his work even more accessible for the picture-book set. This breezy introduction to an uncommon artist serves as a welcoming invitation for budding artists to explore their own creativity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)