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bibliobrandie's review
3.0
I loved learning about Augusta Savage, loved her artwork sprinkled throughout, I'm just not sure if this was the best way to share the story of her life. An afterword by Tammi Lawson, curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, provides more context and biographical information.
jwinchell's review
4.0
Of course there are many artists from the Harlem Renaissance that we don’t know much about because their stories were not ultimately as conventional as other more famous artists. But Nelson has written this biography in verse about Augusta Savage and we are all the better for it.
haileyannereads's review
3.0
I had never heard of Augusta Savage before reading this book. After reading it, my heart breaks for her. She overcame so many hardships and accomplished so many amazing things, just for the world to forget her. This is written in poems from Augusta’s perspective and also includes pictures of some of her work
annebennett1957's review
5.0
Astonishingly good poetry about this almost forgotten artist from the Harlem Renaissance. I am so-o glad I read this book and hope you will, too. Make sure your public library gets a copy of it and tell all your friends to read it!
My review of this and three other books which I recommend to increase your understanding of Black Lives Matter: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2022/11/reviews-of-three-books-you-should-place.html
My review of this and three other books which I recommend to increase your understanding of Black Lives Matter: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2022/11/reviews-of-three-books-you-should-place.html
afro8921's review
5.0
Augusta Savage was an artist before her time. She crafted so many pieces that I have admired but didn't know she created. I enjoyed learning about her journey.
library_kb's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
This was an interesting nonfiction novel in verse about an artist I had not a lot of familiarity with. I liked that photos of her artwork were included with the text, and that the poems often connected to the images. Because I didn't have a lot of background knowledge on the subject, I sometimes struggled to understand what was going on, and certain poems set up an issue in Savage's life, which I then wished was explored further, rather than just moving on. For example, I would have loved more exploration in Section 1 about the beginning of her life and first marriage. However, the author's bio is super helpful (and might be worth starting with if the reader is unfamiliar with the artist as I was). Recommend for upper middle school and high school--bonus, this is a short book which can be hard to find for this age category!
missprint_'s review
4.0
This was good. I liked that I could tell which sculptures were being described after a quick online search just from how the book talked about them. I don’t understand why her stalker/harasser Joe Gould got so much page time. Like sure it was snappy verse but it totally de-centered Augusta for large parts of the story which seemed to be working at cross purposes with the book.
In general I find verse biographies to be a strange thing as poetry isn’t a form that lends itself naturally to nonfiction. Despite several recent titles in this vein I do also still wonder who exactly a verse biography is actually for. Overall good but all of the pop out poems from the voice of people like Joe Gould and sculpture subjects felt weird and disjointed.
In general I find verse biographies to be a strange thing as poetry isn’t a form that lends itself naturally to nonfiction. Despite several recent titles in this vein I do also still wonder who exactly a verse biography is actually for. Overall good but all of the pop out poems from the voice of people like Joe Gould and sculpture subjects felt weird and disjointed.