PICTURE BOOK - Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe

Illustrated by the artist
2017 Caldecott Medal Winner

2016 Little Brown & Company

HC $17.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.16 - 2472 Ratings

My rating:  5 - This is a gorgeous, informative book!

Endpapers:  White grafitti on blue

Illustrations:  Done in the style of Basquiat, the information from the author/illustrator at the back of the book is extremely interesting.

1^st line/s:  "Somewhere in Brooklyn, between hearts that thump, double Dutch, and hopsxotch and salty mouths that slurp sweet ice, a little boy dreams of being a famous ARTIST."

This is an illustration from the book

My comments:  This book is a RADIANT book!  It's also extremely interesting.  I saw the movie The Upside last night, and Kevin Hart's character mention Basquiat.  Then, this morning, this book came across my desk.  I was MEANT to read it today, n'est pas?  It was wonderful, and prompts me to look further into his work, as his story and timeline seem similar to my wonderful Keith Haring.....

This is an actual piece of Basquiat's work!

Goodreads:  Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
          Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean--and definitely not inside the lines--to be beautiful.