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 ( )