Booklist Reviews
Part of the Anholt's Artists series, this charming introduction to Paul Cézanne highlights the artist's relationship with his son, who visits his father in southern France after a long separation. The intimate, sympathetic text shows the developing warmth between parent and child, while revealing Cézanne's shyness, insecurities, and artistic motivations. An appended biography adds factual context to the fictional story. Evocative, realistic illustrations mix with reproductions of Cézanne works and, along with the young character, will draw kids into this enjoyable, informative portrayal of Cézanne as both a father and an influential artist. Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.
Horn Book Guide Reviews
A boy's reclusive painter father invites his son to visit him in the French countryside. There the two Cezannes must forge a relationship. This tender look at a father-son bond also serves as an introduction to the French master and a celebration of unconventional thinking. Anholt's illustrations are executed in a style and palette recalling Paul Cezanne's. Copyright 2010 Horn Book Guide Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
Anholt continues his series of picture books about children and great artists with this homey episode about Paul Cézanne and his son, also named Paul. The highly eccentric painter has lived apart from young Paul and his mother for years, and as the tale opens, he has just invited his son to visit him in the Provençal countryside, where the boy finally finds him on a mountainside, painting. As the two get to know each other, Cézanne explains his theory of painting: "I make everything into simple shapes….You are as round as a sweet little apple!" A chance meeting with a Parisian art dealer leads to recognition and success and ultimately to young Paul's future career as his father's agent. It's a simply told tale that emphasizes the father-son relationship; lessons about Cézanne's importance in the canon are slipped in sideways. Tiny reproductions of Cézanne's works are integrated into the author's customarily loose, bright watercolors to illustrate those lessons. An author's note rounds out the background of the story and indicates that young Paul's grandson, Philippe Cézanne, assisted in its making. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
In this solid addition to Anholt's Artists series, Paul Czanne invites his son to visit him in the countryside. Arriving by train, the boy finds his father on a mountainside, "making a wild painting." He leads his son to the summit, remarking, "It's a long way, but if we follow the path, we won't get lost." When villagers deride the artist's work, he tells the boy, "The world doesn't understand me and I don't understand the world." But a stranger appreciates Czanne's paintings and brings them to Paris, where they sell quickly. Steeped in metaphor (mountain and apple themes recur), Anholt's dialogue-driven narrative successfully reveals the painter's eccentricities and his bond with his son. The book's layered illustrations include reproductions of Czanne's paintings incorporated into Anholt's watercolors, many of which feature the Provence landscapes so prominent in the painter's work. Anholt gives several nods to Czanne masterpieces, as when father and son sit on a ledge overlooking the panorama depicted in Mont Sainte-Victoire and two men in a cafe mimic the subjects of The Card Players. Ages 4–7. (Nov.)
[Page 45]. Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.School Library Journal Reviews
Gr 1–4—This addition to Anholt's series about famous artists features Paul Czanne, the post-impressionist considered by some to be the father of cubism. It relates a fictional episode in the painter's life, a summer in which his son visits and (along with readers) comes to see his father's life as a struggling innovator. As luck would have it, it is this same summer that a visiting art dealer is taken with Czanne's originality, thus marking the beginning of his success as a painter. The narrative flows naturally and deals with some difficult issues—the painter's phobia about being touched, his estrangement from his family, and the disregard for his efforts—in an age-appropriate and sensitive fashion, though attentive readers may find more questions than answers. Anholt's charming watercolor and pen illustrations re-create a time and place that will be unfamiliar to most readers and feature homages to Czanne's most famous works. Most important, the title coveys the idea that artists are real people fulfilling a purpose that may not be understood in the context of their everyday lives.—Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC
[Page 77]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.