Scan barcode
mdevlin923's review
4.0
A picture book biography about Isamu Noguchi, an artist and landscape architect. It takes place during one day in his childhood, where he explores nature by himself...which ultimately inspire him to create his art.
theillegiblevirgo's review
4.0
a sweet tale of a boy between worlds finding friendship and connectivity in his alone time.
hollyxbear's review
5.0
Short, sweet, and to the point. I loved this book, especially the simplicity of it. What a wonderful adventure.
ebraam's review
4.0
Beautiful book in writing and illustration. A picture book version of a biography without being too wordy.
beths0103's review
5.0
I tagged this book as a biography but it’s not quite a biography. It’s not about Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi’s life, but rather a story about what he was like as a child. This story honors all the quiet introverted children in our lives and classrooms. My favorite line in the book is, “You think about how you were alone but not lonely.”
jodil's review
4.0
Perfectly soothing, an absolute comfort for any introverted friends out there! "You think about how you were alone but not lonely."
librarianryan's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
This book is an ode to Isamu, not a biography. If one reads this story, as a story, it is quite nice. It is about a child’s view of wonder. If one is reading it as a biography about the artist Isamu, one will be highly disappointed. As there is very little, almost nothing about the artist. This is all about how the artist viewed life. It’s an interesting read, but not one that readers would gravitate to over and over again.
mat_tobin's review
4.0
For Isamu, the world is a noisy place; he finds solace, peace and joy in the natural world around him - be it grass or stone, wind or leaf. For him, this is where he can find himself and see a beauty that perhaps the rest of the world is too busy to notice.
In a fascinating turn of narrative form, that is second-person narrative all the way through, the author asks us to imagine ourselves as Isamu and question whether we could act and feel the same way he does as he navigates his environment. At first, I wondered whether this was a book about a neurodiverse child trying to find their place in the world around them (in some ways, it is) but an author's note reveals that this is Yang's attempt to imagine the life of Isamu Noguchi - a famous Japanese American artist.
One reviewer used the word 'pensive' to describe this picturebook and I think that's the perfect word.
In a fascinating turn of narrative form, that is second-person narrative all the way through, the author asks us to imagine ourselves as Isamu and question whether we could act and feel the same way he does as he navigates his environment. At first, I wondered whether this was a book about a neurodiverse child trying to find their place in the world around them (in some ways, it is) but an author's note reveals that this is Yang's attempt to imagine the life of Isamu Noguchi - a famous Japanese American artist.
One reviewer used the word 'pensive' to describe this picturebook and I think that's the perfect word.