Newcomer Rodríguez evokes the magic of O'Keeffe's interior world with a spare, lyrical narrative: "Everywhere she looks, shapes hum and sing to her.... Paint speaks for her. Watercolor and oil are her words." Paschkis (Bottle Houses
) recreates the feel of O'Keeffe's work but with her own style; she uses collages made of painted cut paper in gentle gradations of blues and bleached reds, and simulates several well-known images of the subject's work, including the stark landscapes that became O'Keeffe's trademark. Rodríguez says little about the artist's later life and growing fame, and the volume includes no reproductions of the paintings or photographs of the painter. Instead, the author concentrates on O'Keeffe's unconventional childhood ("But in 1899 only boys become artists. A girl wishing to become one is scandalous"), and on conjuring up the inner life of the artist. What emerges is a portrait of the flowering of an independent woman, and a useful introduction to the thoughts and emotions that might accompany the creative process. Ages 5-8. (Feb.)
