Fearless World Traveler: Adventures of Marianne North, Botanical Artist

In this captivating picture book biography, Lawlor tells how Marianne North (1830–1890), born into great wealth in England, faced a total lack of support for her interests in music, art, and botany: “Marianne’s mother said she was wasting her time.” Trapped into a caretaking role until her father’s death, she finally found freedom at age 40. She began to travel the world alone, painting the pictures of flowers and plants that fill her namesake gallery in London’s Kew Gardens. Lawlor’s narrative of North’s astounding journeys on steamships, camels, and canoes weaves in direct quotes that capture her irrepressible spirit—“Did I not paint?... And wander and wonder at everything?” Stadtlander’s vibrant watercolor and ink illustrations capture details—gimlet-eyed crocodiles, patterned carpet bags, a crab scuttling over a paint-smeared palette, “marauding crows” stealing “glittering tubes of paint”—that conjure the rich peculiarities of North’s intrepid and privileged life. Ages 6–9. (May)