Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude

by Jonah Winter, Calef Brown (Illustrator)

Overview

Gertrude
is Gertrude
is Gertrude
is Gertrude.

And Alice is Alice.

And Gertrude and Alice are Gertrude and Alice.

And you are welcome to join them for tea. But beware, for there you will find a bear in a chair, just barely scary. And here is a beard with a man attached to it. And then, of course, some words might appear, uninvited, but delighted in spite of their light bulbs. But, but, but, but—that doesn't make any sense! Yes!

In a story inspired by the oh-so-modern groundbreaking writing of Gertrude herself, not a lot makes sense. Even so, the oh-so-popular author Jonah Winter, and the ever-so-popular illustrator Calef Brown, and the most popular poodle of all time, Basket, invite you to enter the whimsical world of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416940883
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	02/10/2009
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	11.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD480L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jonah Winter is the award-winning author of more than forty nonfiction picture books that promote environmental awareness and social and racial justice. Among them are The Snow Man; The Little Owl & the Big Tree: A Christmas Story; Oil; The Secret Project; Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R.B.G. vs. Inequality; My Name is James Madison Hemings; Barack; The Founding Fathers!; and Lillian’s Right to Vote, a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award recipient and Kirkus Prize finalist.

Calef Brown is the #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of Flamingos on the Roof, Tippintown, Dutch Sneakers and Fleakeepers, and Polkabats and Octopus Slacks. He lives in Maine.

Editorial Reviews

"Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude is Gertrude puts the fun front and center, both in the lives of the artists it describes, and in its emulation of its titular writer's style." — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"'Thank you for this cow' the story ends but it is really just beginning because readers will want to go back to the words and the colors and the tea and Alice and Gertrude and having bright, sparkling fun with words and colors and tea." — Kirkus Reviews

"Taking his title from Gertrude Stein's famous saying about a rose, Winter (Frida) crafts a Steinesque 'word portrait' of the modernist author." — Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher

Taking his title from Gertrude Stein's famous saying about a rose, Winter (Frida) crafts a Steinesque "word portrait" of the modernist author. Stein wears a serene smile in Brown's (Soup for Breakfast) patchy acrylic images, and by her side is an enigmatic Alice B. Toklas: "And Gertrude and Alice are Gertrude and Alice. Well it's like this. You walk up the stairs, and there they are." Readers reassured by closure will not find it here. Winter's nonlinear prose echoes The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, and his fugues suit a poet fond of repetition (and babble). Brown's idiosyncratic visuals and complementary palette-likewise not customary biographical fare-befit this impresario of experimental artists and writers on the Rive Gauche. At Stein and Toklas's famous salons, "Everybody talks. Talk talk talk talk. Laugh laugh. More talk. Laugh. Okay. Enough." Brown aptly pictures Stein's close friend Picasso surrounded by minotaur-themed cubism imagery, and Matisse framed by leafy shapes. Although purists can quibble that Matisse's cutouts came later and Hemingway lacked his white beard when he and Stein were rivals, this salute mimes Stein's mischievous voice and cultivates its own literary audience. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)

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Publishers Weekly

Gr 5 Up

Winter has cleverly constructed the briefest of introductions to the adult life of Gertrude Stein and the salon era during which she wrote. Using mimicry, he demonstrates the repetitive, rambling, nonsensical style that made the eccentric writer famous: "A sentence can be whatever, if you're Gertrude. You don't have to make sense (if you're Gertrude). You can write 'rose is a rose is a rose is a rose' if you're Gertrude." He describes her relationship with Alice B. Toklas: "Gertrude does the talking and laughing. And Alice makes sure that Gertrude is happy." Words and illustrations simulate the salons of the early 20th century where artists, writers, thinkers-Picasso, Matisse, and Hemingway are featured here-gathered to discuss the arts and culture of the day. The text is written in a variety of font sizes. Bright acrylic illustrations, set against backgrounds of orange, turquoise, rose, yellow, and ochre, meld perfectly with the text. Brown's avant-garde folk-style paintings include people with caricature faces and representations of "modern" paintings ("All art is modern when it's being made"). A short author's note offers a bit of information about Stein. Alas, due to its sophisticated topic, this creative, artistic piece will appeal to a limited audience.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

School Library Journal

Gertrude is Gertrude and a rose is a rose and Jonah and Calef are writer and artist. If Gertrude were alive then Gertrude would love this. Children, too? They probably will because the colors are colors and rich in their colors and surprising, too, whoever saw a blue man drinking tea? And artists and writers that children have heard of like Picasso and Matisse and Hemingway come to have tea with Gertrude and Alice whose job is to keep Gertrude happy. And the words are dancing and singing and having tea and being the words they want to be and so are the pictures and there is a cow. "Thank you for this cow" the story ends but it is really just beginning because readers will want to go back to the words and the colors and the tea and Alice and Gertrude and having bright, sparkling fun with words and colors and tea. (Picture book. 4-10)

Kirkus Reviews