This is in many ways a lovely book, evocative of Chagall's work. I do recommend it.

But there's a caveat. When the artist moves (escapes, effectively) to Paris, and changes his name, it's written about as if it's a universally good thing. The author's note explains why Moishe became Marc, but the text itself only implies that every Jew, or every person with a name that doesn't look native, *should* change his or her name to fit in.

In fact, there are a lot of questions raised but unanswered here, for the careful reader. The themes of creativity are well-handled, but the history and biography are so incomplete as to be confusing. I do not recommend that you simply give this to children, or read it to them cold. Do your research first, try to find other sources for context.

And especially be ready to discuss why Chagall behaved as if he was rejecting his Jewish heritage. It does seem to me to be an odd choice for the Sydney Taylor Book Award. ( )

This would be a great book for Primary or Intermediate Readers
This book is about Mark Chagall's life and all that he experienced growing up in Russia.
This would be a great book to have to display how pictures can tell a story about someone's life as there are not very many words. This book would also be helpful during a autobiography paper project as it displays one way to write about your story.

This book introduces young readers (age 5 and over) to the famous artist who began life as Moishe Shagal in Belarus, reinventing himself in Paris to become Marc Chagall. But the text is rather opaque, promoting lyricism over clarity. If I had not known about Chagall, I wouldn’t understand him from this book. For example, when Chagall is a boy, the author rather harshly and without explanation characterizes him as a “misfit” - a number of possibilities can be inferred from the text - is it because he is a dreamer, or he is an artist, or he likes folktales, perhaps? Or is it because he is Jewish? Chagall’s Judaism, which informs so much of his work, is not mentioned at all except in the Author’s Note, something most kids will not read.

Acrylic illustrations by Mary Grandpré replicate Chagall’s jewel-toned palette but not his skill, and except for a few reproductions of Chagall’s actual work as part of the Author’s Note, it may be hard to figure out why he had and continues to have such great appeal. ( )

This is a picture book biography for the artist Marc Chagill. The book had wonderful art on each page that helped to tell the story of some of his life. In the back of the book is an author's note with included pictures of some of his work.
While I enjoyed the art work, and the author's note, some of the text in the book was confusing, and did not flow easily. I believe an older child or even adults may like this story, however, a younger audience may enjoy simply looking at the pictures. ( )

-Very descriptive language, plenty of adjectives with a certain flow/cadence
-Lovely artwork-I can see the influence of Chagnall's work used in the illustrations-both the examples of his work & the illustrator's interpretation of the narrative as a whole
-I like it but this is not nearly as memorable a biography as several other picture books (artists and non-artists alike)
-Author's Note & Sources page ( )

I’ve loved Chagall’s art since I’ve been a child and have read other art books about him. I did learn some things about him in this book. I particularly liked the 4 pages at the end with author’s note, photos, sources, etc.

The book proper I did really like the illustrations, in the style of Chagall, but the text, while poetic and informative, did not flow pleasantly for me.

I thought I’ve love the book more than I did. I did like it though (3-1/2 stars) and I’m glad that I read it. It would be a good introduction to Chagall’s art and life for children and older people. I definitely wanted more though so I might seek out other books written for both adults and young people. ( )

To me the end notes of this book were more interesting and entertaining than the story. The story seems to wander crooked roads. There is a beginning and and end but the story is so flowing that it seems more a short ramble. But upon reading the endnotes, you learn that the style of the story was based of Chagall's own writings, and while I still find it odd and a bit unsettling, make the story more interesting, but not interesting enough for me to use in storytime.
#IllinoisReads2019. ( )

This book was very hard for me to follow. The language in this book wasn’t familiar to me at all. I felt like reading this book was kind of a waste of time due to the fact I would have to look up almost every other word in order to get a full understanding of this book. From what I did understand, this book seems to be about a boy with a big imagination that seen life with different perspectives throughout a window. ( )

This book was hard for me to follow. It used a lot of foreign words that I was not familiar with and did not know how to pronounce. This book did, however, use a lot of imagery, similes, and metaphors. Marc Chagall enjoyed the thought of becoming an artist more than the thought of becoming a butcher, blacksmith, or baker. He experienced war and revolution in Russia. He also got married and had a child. He left Russia and went to France. He eventually left France and went to America. In America he became familiar with new materials to continue his art with. He became famous for his art. ( )

"With poetic language and whimsical pictures, Rosenstock and GrandPré have completely captured the beauty of Marc Chagall’s life and art.