Whirligigs: The Wondrous Windmills of Vollis Simpson's Imagination
by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author) Edwin Fotheringham (Illustrator)
Take a journey through the creative process that led folk artist Vollis Simpson to create his wonderful and whimsical wind-powered whirligigs and more in this STEAM/STEM picture book.
Vollis Simpson was a man with a curious mind--always eager to know how things worked and how to fix them. Growing up on a farm in North Carolina, he loved to tinker with machines. And when he served in the Army Air Corps during WWII, Vollis kept right on tinkering. His ingenuity allowed him to build things no one would have thought to create from scraps--a washing machine out of airplane parts and a motorcycle out of a bike.
After the war, his passion for metal creations picked up speed--turning into a whirlwind of windmills as far as the eye could see. Luckily, Vollis's fanciful and colorful windmills have been preserved at a park in Wilson, NC, where visitors can behold his magnificent and towering creations forever whizzing in the air.
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School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 4--On a North Carolina farm, a young boy named (1919-2013) loved tinkering and fixing things; he grew up to become an inventor. He created a wind-powered washing machine, turned a bike into a motorcycle, and ran a machine repair shop. After getting injured in his 60s, Simpson needed a hobby and chose to turn spare parts and scrap metal into giant windmills. Eventually, his windmill-filled farm became a tourist attraction. Due to high demand, Simpson started making and selling mini windmills, which appeared at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and outside the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. When he grew too old to care for the windmills, the town bought 30 of them and placed them in a park named after him. Back matter includes an author's note, a bibliography, and a song that would be fun at a read-aloud. The length of the text makes it an entertaining story for even young children, and the illustrations are colorful and whimsical. VERDICT A wonderful addition to any library collection.--Kirsten Caldwell
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Publishers Weekly
Vollis Simpson (1919-2013) grew up on a North Carolina farm "fixing things before he could read," writes Boston Weatherford. When an injury in his 60s forced him to close his successful machine-repair shop, he was as "bored as a two-by-four," until his next chapter came to him in a dream. He would create whirligigs--kinetic, windmill-like sculptures fashioned from scrap and salvaged material. Digital art by Fotheringham conveys the giddy feel of an amusement park or funhouse to images of the inventions, which pop with playful textures, candy colors, and punctuations of onomatopoeia ("BANG, BONK, THUD, THONK"). Lauded by schoolchildren, tourists, and visionary art connoisseurs alike, the whirligigs today live in an outdoor gallery. Offering an opportunity to appreciate the boundlessness of human creativity, it's a story about a figure who refused to call himself an artist, saying what mattered most was to "wake up every day and have to do something with my hands." Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author's note and photographs conclude. Ages 7-10. (Nov.)
Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Kirkus
This illuminating biography of a mechanic-turned-folk-artist brings his whirligigs to clanking, stirring life.
Review quotes
JNF051130 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Technology | Machinery & Tools
JNF061010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Technology | Inventions
