Grant and Tillie Go Walking

by Monica Kulling, Sydney Smith (Illustrator)

Overview

Grant Wood believed that to be a real artist, he had to live in Paris. But once he got there, he realized that to be a great painter he needed to return to the people and places—and even animals—that he knew and loved the best.

Inspired by the life of artist Grant Wood, this is the sensitively imagined story of the great American painter and a cow named Tillie. Skillfully mixing fact with fiction, Monica Kulling’s text explores the making of an artist, while Sydney Smith’s illustrations echo Grant Wood’s own techniques. The result is a gently wise picture book that will encourage young readers and artists to trust the love that is sometimes only found close to home.

Includes an author’s note that provides biographical information about Grant Wood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554984466
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	08/01/2015
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 10.40(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	AD590L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

MONICA KULLING iis the author of more than sixty books for children, including Aunt Pearl, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher; and Ruby’s Hope: A Story of How the Famous “Migrant Mother” Photograph Became the Face of the Great Depression, illustrated by Sarah Dvojak. She has written the popular Great Idea series, and her work has been nominated for many awards, including numerous Silver Birch Express and Golden Oak awards and the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

SYDNEY SMITH is the creator of Small in the City, which received the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Ezra Jack Keats Award. Other books he has illustrated include The White Cat and the Monk by Jo Ellen Bogart; Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson; and Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz, which received the Kate Greenaway Medal. His other accolades include two Governor General’s Awards and four New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year citations. He is also the illustrator of I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, which received the Schneider Family Book Award and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and My Baba’s Garden, also written by Jordan Scott. Sydney lives with his family in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Read an Excerpt

"Relaxing under an apple tree, Tillie felt the sun warm her sleek brown back. She picked up an apple and dropped it into Grant’s open palm. What a cow!
Grant chewed the apple while Tillie chewed her cud.
'I’m leaving for Paris tomorrow, Miss Tillie,' Grant said. 'I want to paint like the French artists do.'
Tillie’s brow furrowed. She didn’t like the sound of that.
— from the book

Editorial Reviews

One of the best children's books written on the story of painting. Highly recommended.

CM Magazine

A heartfelt, visually pleasing, and informative read inspired by an artist’s love for his home.

Booklist Online

Using watercolours, ink, and a toothbrush, illustrator Sydney Smith mimics Grant’s style, bringing Kulling’s story of friendship, home, and ambition to life with an understated softness.

National Post

CCBC Best Books for Children and Teens, Spring 2016

"A heartfelt, visually pleasing, and informative read inspired by an artist’s love for his home." — Booklist

"This fanciful story represents the power of friendship and the role of the familiar in the creative process." — Kirkus Reviews

"Using watercolours, ink, and a toothbrush, illustrator Sydney Smith mimics Grant’s style, bringing Kulling’s story of friendship, home, and ambition to life with an understated softness." — National Post

"The tender message to draw inspiration from the things you love still holds true in this mixture of fact and fiction." — School Library Journal

"One of the best children's books written on the story of painting. Highly recommended." — CM Magazine



"I realized that all the really good ideas I’d ever had came to me while I was milking a cow. So I went back to Iowa." — Grant Wood

From the Publisher

10/01/2015
K-Gr 2—In a fictional tale inspired by Grant Wood, the painter of American Gothic, Tillie, a cow, longs for her companion when he goes to Paris to study under the masters. When Europe proves to be a disappointment, the artist returns home to paint the things he loves, to the delight of his cow. The simple text reads aloud easily, and the horizontal format captures the rolling hillsides of the Iowa countryside. The impressionistic speckles of Smith's illustrations come from his use of a toothbrush and combine well with the soft shapes of watercolor and ink. Although the bold stenciled outlines of his shapes vaguely recall Wood's style, their dreamlike tints and subtle texture is no substitute (nor are they intended to be) for the heroism of Wood's exaggerated curves, strong colors, and bird's-eye perspective. The simple story is written as if it were a true account of events. An author's note addresses the embellishments and made-up bits, but the tender message to draw inspiration from the things you love still holds true in this mixture of fact and fiction. VERDICT This appealing, if slightly sentimental, introduction to the artist and his work will be a useful resource for art teachers and the creatively inclined.—Erin Reilly-Sanders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

School Library Journal

2015-06-16
Loosely based on the life of Grant Wood, this is the story of the artist's search for inspiration and his discovery that home—and a cow named Tillie—was all he needed to be happy.Soft watercolors beautifully depict the rolling hillsides of rural Iowa, where Tillie is so content to live on a farm with her friend Grant that "at milking time, Tillie gave Grant gallons of frothy goodness." He wants to be an artist, though, dreaming of being taken as seriously as French painters. Leaving Tillie behind, Grant travels to Paris in 1920. Smith's illustrations nicely capture the Parisian art scene with broad strokes and open spaces, spaces that Wood occupies uneasily, with a beret and goatee that look pasted-on, an outsider who realizes that he needs to go home to paint what he loves. Meanwhile, a forlorn Tillie feels abandoned by her friend and walking companion, wasting away until they're reunited. The book's typeface is oddly small for the expansive illustrations and storyline, and it's sometimes hard to read against the backdrop. A child might wonder why the artist's eyes are invisible behind his eyeglasses, unlike the bespectacled man in Wood's famous American Gothic, painted at the end of the story.Though the factual information about Grant Wood is scanty, this fanciful story represents the power of friendship and the role of the familiar in the creative process. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews