Product Details
Atheneum, February 2009
Hardcover, 40 pages
ISBN-10: 141694088X
ISBN-13: 9781416940883
Ages: 4 - 8
Grades: P - 3
Awards and Nominations
- ALA Rainbow List Selection
- Bulletin Blue Ribbon
- CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council)
Description
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 lightbulbs. 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.
How did you come to write this book?
I had always wanted to write a book about Gertrude Stein, the oh so modern American writer whose apartment in Paris was a gathering place for the greatest writers and artists of the early 20th century. And I had wanted to write about her life with her companion, Alice B. Toklas. The question was: How? The answer turned out to be so obvious that I'm now embarassed that it was ever a question. Of course, the book would have to be written in Gertrude Stein's style, which is very famous for being repetitive and somewhat nonsensical, whimsical, and ...childlike! (How perfect!) And I would present her romantic relationship with Alice B. Toklas as the most natural, wonderful thing on earth -- because, truly, that's what I believe it to have been. To me, this seemed like the perfect topic for a children's book.
"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
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 7, 2009
...Is Round,' illustrated by Clement Hurd), finding children's books about the writer is no easy task. Poet/author Jonah Winter has filled that gap with 'Gertrude Is Gertrude Is Gertrude Is Gertrude' (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, $16.99, ...
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