A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me
by Yevgenia Nayberg (Author)
A young girl forms a special connection to the modernist painter Florine Stettheimer, and imagines herself joining in on Florine's exciting life.
When a young girl visits the museum, she finds an unexpected friend in a self-portrait of Florine Stettheimer. They're both artists; they both have Jewish families; they even look alike!
Florine's life was wild and glamorous. She painted people in flight and buildings that grew from the ground like crooked trees, bright colors and shapes and animals. She threw parties frequented by other famous visionaries like Marcel Duchamp and Carl Van Vechten.
Soon, our narrator is dreaming up her own fantastical parties for Florine, with table spreads of colorful treats, and painting and dancing and poetry. With Florine in her life, even a rainy day can't make the world seem humdrum anymore.
A Party for Florine is an unapologetically whimsical fan letter to an artist whose influence is clear in Sydney Taylor Honoree Yevgenia Nayberg's captivating illustrations. Dreamers, creators, and budding modernists will be drawn into the young protagonist's party just as strongly as she is drawn into Stettheimer's paintings.
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Publishers Weekly
A young artist visiting a museum feels an immediate connection upon encountering a self-portrait by modernist artist Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944) in this biographical picture book. There's an uncanny resemblance between the two, who are both Jewish, and the child wonders if Stettheimer's family also tended to "talk at the same time, waving hands at each other." As the youth learns more about Stettheimer's life and art, mixed-media images by Nayberg (I Hate Borsch!) pay homage to the artist's distinctive aesthetic ("Everything Florine painted danced and sang on a canvas"). Festive, translucent colors, swooping shapes, and floating figures depict an individual who embodied a free creative spirit and Jazz Age style, hosting cosmopolitan salons frequented by the likes of Marcel Duchamp. Inspired by Stettheimer's life and extensively imagining hosting a party for her ("I would serve: / Blue pancakes./ Orange jelly beans"), the child realizes that, far from being a gloomy place, "the world around me is full of color and full of surprise." A walk outdoors reveals that there's even poetry and joy in a squirrel scavenging a cinnamon bagel, suggesting that this book's witty subject is a more than worthwhile muse. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author's note concludes. Ages 4-8. Agent: Anna Olswanger, Olswanger Literary. (July)
Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Kirkus
Illustrated in dynamic, mostly primary colors that mirror Florine's customary palettes. . . A passionate ode to a pioneering female artist whose influence endures and inspires.
JUV003000 - Juvenile Fiction | Art & Architecture
JUV033020 - Juvenile Fiction | Religious | Jewish
Picture books
Imagination
Art
Imagination in children
Identity (Philosophical concept)
Stettheimer, Florine
