Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (Caldecott & Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner)

“Somewhere in Brooklyn, between hearts that thump, double Dutch, and hopscotch and salty mouths that slurp sweet ice, a little boy dreams of being a famous ARTIST.”Those are the words that begin “Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat,” a 40-page art-and-text book for kids by Javaka Steptoe. But… grades 1 to 5? Ages 6-10? Really? I mean, yes, great, little kids will love the art and one of them, a dreamer, will think he’ll grow up to be a great artist, but this book is also terrific for tweens who may not care about art but who like short texts and great visuals. My daughter is coming up on her 15th birthday — she’s getting this book. And you, the adult reading this: If your ideal of a visual binge is multiple episodes of something on the flat screen and you’d like some rich, vibrant eye candy wrapped around a poem, yeah, do it. (Style advice: Then put it on the coffee table, like it’s an award-winning art book.)I’m not the only one who’s nuts about “Radiant Child.” It won the 2017 Randolph Caldecott Medal. It was a “best book” of the year for the Washington Post, NPR, Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, and many more. Why? Because what Javaka Steptoe has recorded in this book is the arc from dream to accomplishment. What ingredients are necessary for that to happen. Who needs to provide support. The price that gets paid. And who gets acknowledged at the pinnacle.As a kid, he tells us, Basquiat “wakes from his dreams” to draw. His work is “sloppy, ugly, and sometimes weird, but somehow still BEAUTIFUL.” His mother agrees; she lies on the floor and draws with him. She takes him to theater and museums, showing him what’s possible. There’s a powerful spread of Basquiat in short pants, holding his mother’s hand, as he stares at his favorite picture, Picasso’s “Guernica.” And then, disaster: “His mother’s mind is not well.” She can no longer live at home. Heartbroken, Jean-Michel tries to draw the blues, but can’t. He leaves Brooklyn, and on the streets of New York sees an energy equal to his own. He draws on walls and streets. His graffiti gets noticed. He becomes a famous painter. People describe him as “radiant, wild, a genius child, but in his heart he is king.” He draws crowns for himself and people he admires. He still visits his mother. They talk about art. And in his paintings, he gives his mother “the place of honor. She’s “a queen on a throne.”These few words are matched by Steptoe’s art. He doesn’t paint Basquiat’s pictures, he channels his spirit, using discarded wood and then painting on it. Steptoe creates grids, then breaks the images up; the pages aren’t neat. The result is a book of powerful physicality. And emotion — Steptoe’s father is a noted illustrator, but much of the story of Basquiat and his mother is also, sadly, the story of Steptoe and his mother.Mental illness, the loss of a parent, art that doesn’t live between the lines — isn’t this a lot for a 6-year-old? Depends. I have a box of our daughter’s art from that age; she had something going. And what kids understand? You’d be surprised. As for their dreams, don’t be stunned if “getting famous” is on the list. A prudent parent who reads this book to a child and then hands it over would do well to have to some art supplies handy.Basquiet died of an overdose when he was 27. But not in these pages. This is the story of a boy with a dream. He worked hard. He made it. He deserves the crown he wears. Triumph. Who doesn’t wish for that?

Radiant Child tells the story of a young Basquiat and the love for art thru his Puerto Rican mother nourishment. A great book for children.

Good homeschooling tool.

I teach pre-K and kindergarten and I love using this book as part of art lessons. Basquiat’s art is great to inspire kids, because they can actually create things that look like his and feel like accomplished artists. We talk about his self portraits and the fact that he isn’t always smiling in them, that it’s OK to have other emotions and it’s OK to express them, and it’s OK for them to be messy. And it’s OK to always see yourself as wearing a crown, even when you’re messy or sad or scared.

There is really no way to describe the beauty of this "Picture Book" as it tells an immensely complex tale of an immensely complex artist -- in a way that kids can recognize themselves in this icon of a generation. The collage of visuals either follow, or lead, the complexity of Basquiat's life. For all those Baby Boomers having kids there late 40s and fifties, Javaka Steptoe's work allows your youngsters to know a part of you and history. Not to mention, no one else I've seen can hold the attention of a bunch of kids in a library like this author seems to. The Caldecott Medal was well aimed.

This is a good book but I am so disappointed because I thought this was going to be a great book. I love reading picture books featuring amazing illustrations with my girls and I especially love if the book is a biography about an artist. The art in this book is good but not best-of-the year, makes-you-stare-at-each-page good but rather just good, better than most but not the best. I also was disappointed with the story. We did not know much about Jean-Michel Basquiat and unfortunately I still do not feel like I know much about him except that he always wanted to be an artist, was in a severe car accident as a child, and his mother was hospitalized with a mental disorder. That's it really. I still do not feel like I know much about his art. Maybe this book suffered from the expectations I had when we opened it. This is not a horrible book and definitely worth reading but somehow I would have just liked more. I am rounding up to 4 stars.

The Radiant Child is a wonderful nonfiction picture book about an artist. It tells a great story about Jean-Michel and is inspiring to young people. When young children hear stories about people who are like them and hear all the accomplishments they made in their life, it gives them hope and tells the kids that they can do that too. I have a lot of little artists in my class and I like to find books like these to read to them to make sure that they always stick to their passions.

I'm an artist myself, and normally I'm repelled by the very idea of a visual artist doing a picture book about a visual artist, especially one as unique as Jean-Michel Basquiat. But I'm completely entranced by this one. I love the illustrations -- they really seem to speak to a special relationship between artist Steptoe and artist Basquiat. Especially luminous is the depiction of Basquiat's mother taking him to see Picasso's Guernica while it was still in New York's Museum of Modern Art.I'd agree with one other reviewer that it would be a shame to restrict Radiant Child to grades 1-5. It's great for anyone who has a feeling for art, image, and the creative process.