SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: The Bad Chair
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.dashatolstikova.com/
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 296
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born September 20, 1976, in Moscow, USSR (now Russia); immigrated to United States.
EDUCATION:University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.F.A. (photography), 2001; School of Visual Arts, M.F.A. (illustration), 2012.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Illustrator. Worked variously as a photographer, film producer, cargo van driver, and newswire translator.
AWARDS:Notable Children’s Book designation, New York Times, 2014, for The Jacket by Kirsten Hall; Mildred K. Batchelder Award Honor Book selection, 2015, for Nine Open Arms by Benny Lindelauf.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Dasha Tolstikova is a Russian-born writer and illustrator. She immigrated to the United States in 1992 and eventually became an American citizen. Tolstikova holds a bachelor’s degree in photography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain and a a master’s degree in illustration from the School of Visual Arts. Before becoming a full-time writer and illustrator, she worked in the film industry, performing various jobs, including translator, producer, and cargo van driver.
Tolstikova has illustrated the books of other writers, including Rebecca Grabill, John Sobol, Kirsten Hall, and Benny Lindelauf. Her collaboration with Lindelauf, a Dutch writer, was called Nine Open Arms. The book finds a family of nine moving into a strange house near a cemetery. A story about the house’s past is shared in a flashback. “This is a strange, somber, and oddly compelling narrative,” commented Sarah Ellis in Horn Book. A Kirkus Reviews critic described the book as “a challenging and entirely unique Dutch import.” In Hall’s The Jacket, Tolstikova illustrates the story of a book called Book, who is distraught after his cover is muddied by a dog called Egg Cream. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews suggested: “The idea’s originality and the child-friendly instructions at the end of Book’s tale make this a novel gift pick.”
A lonely mouse climbs a palace tower to visit a cat in Sobol’s Friend or Foe?. Realizing that visiting the cat may be dangerous, the mouse goes through with his journey anyway. A Publishers Weekly writer suggested: “Children with a tolerance for ambiguity will enjoy talking about the riddle of an ending.” Sadie Tucker, reviewer in Resource Links, commented: “With quiet artwork and a story that has a fable-like quality to it, this title presents a unique addition to the picture book field.” In Grabill’s Violet and the Woof, Tolstikova illustrates the tale of siblings Peter and Violet, who travel through the woods to deliver soup to Papa Jean-Louis, their sick neighbor. Along the way, they meet a dog that Peter calls a Woof. A Kirkus Reviews critic offered a mixed assessment of the volume, stating: “Neighborliness, sibling friendship, and bits of a fractured fairy tale can’t overcome the book’s limitations.”
In 2015, Tolstikova released her first self-illustrated title, A Year without Mom. The volume finds her looking back on her twelve-year-old self. During that year, her mother went to the U.S. to study, and Tolstikova lived with her grandparents in Moscow. “Readers will wish the sequel were available instantly,” predicted a Publishers Weekly reviewer.
The Bad Chair, another self-illustrated book by Tolstikova, tells the story of Vivi, a little girl who loves playing with her favorite stuffed animal, Monkey. Chair becomes jealous of Monkey and devises a plan to get Vivi to himself. Vivi becomes angry when she learns of Chair’s intentions, but eventually, the two are able to reconcile. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews remarked that the book featured a “cute concept.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the volume “a closely observed account of someone longing to be noticed.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, September, 2014, Amy Atkinson, review of Nine Open Arms, p. 39.
Horn Book, September-October, 2014, Sarah Ellis, review of Nine Open Arms, p. 114.
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2014, review of Nine Open Arms; October 1, 2014, review of The Jacket; August 1, 2018, review of Violet and the Woof; September 15, 2020, review of The Bad Chair.
Publishers Weekly, August 25, 2014, review of The Jacket, p. 105; August 17, 2015, review of A Year without Mom, p. 75; August 15, 2016, review of Friend or Foe?, p. 67; September 17, 2018, review of Violet and the Woof, p. 82; September 28, 2020, review of The Bad Chair, p. 62.
Resource Links, December, 2016, Sadie Tucker, review of Friend or Foe?, p. 8.
School Library Journal, June, 2014, Amy Koester, review of Nine Open Arms, p. 104.
ONLINE
Behance, https://www.behance.net/ (March 2, 2021), author profile.
DART, https://www.ai-ap.com/ (June 7, 2019), Peggy Roalf, author interview.
Dasha Tolstikova blog, http://heytheredasha.tumblr.com (January 1, 2016).
Dasha Tolstikova website, http://www.dashatolstikova.com (March 2, 2021).
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, http://blaine.org/ (February 23, 2016), author interview.
This Picture Book Life, http://thispicturebooklife.com/ (September 29, 2015), author interview.
Dasha Tolstikova was born in Moscow and made her first illustrations when her mother sewed up small pamphlets of paper for her to create tiny books. Now Dasha illustrates bigger books, such as The Jacket by Kirsten Hall, a New York Times Book Review Notable Children’s Book; If a T. Rex Crashes Your Birthday Party by Jill Esbaum; and Friend or Foe? by John Sobol. She is also the author and illustrator of a graphic memoir, A Year without Mom. She lives in Brooklyn with a menagerie of roommates and her dog, Muffin. You can visit her at www.dashatolstikova.com.
Dasha Tolstikova’s new book
THE BAD CHAIR is out October 27th, 2020 -
you can pre-order here!
Previously, she wrote and illustrated
A YEAR WITHOUT MOM (now out in paperback!)
It was a Kirkus Best Middle-Grade Book of the Year,
a USBBY Outstanding International Books selection,
and received four starred reviews.
Dasha also illustrated THE JACKET, by Kirsten Hall
(New York Times Review Notable book of 2014);
IF A T-REX CRASHES YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY,
by Jill Esbaum;
FRIEND OR FOE, by John Sobol;
and VIOLET AND THE WOOF, by Rebecca Grabill.
All of Dasha’s books can be purchased via Bookshop.
When not at her desk,
Dasha likes to read boarding school novels
& go for long walks with her dog, Muffin.
Clients include: Random House, Harper Collins, Enchanted Lion Books, Groundwood Books,
New York Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker,
The Wall Street Journal, HBO,
Middlebury Alumni Magazine, and Moscow News.
Originally from Moscow, Russia,
Dasha is currently stuck in NY, NY.
(But hey, it could be worse.)
To get in touch: dtolstikova@gmail.com
QUOTED: "I really wanted every illustration to be emotionally meaningful, but also to be coherent and to move the story along—so I spent a lot of time thinking about individual compositions, but also about the flow of the book as a whole."
A YEAR WITHOUT MOM + INTERVIEW WITH DASHA TOLSTIKOVA
picture books for the older set
09.29.2015
a-year-without-momA Year Without Mom by Dasha Tolstikova (October, 2015).
I’m a huge fan of Dasha Tolstikova’s illustrations (see: The Jacket; see: her website.). And this new book is a wonderful showcase for her art and storytelling.
Kind of a middle grade graphic novel, A Year Without Mom tells the story of Dasha’s 12th year in Moscow, the year her mother leaves for America to attend school. If you loved Jane, the Fox and Me, I think you’ll love this book too.
It’s one girl’s growing up, with specificity of characters and moments and friends and feelings. Swan Lake on the television during political unrest. A trio of friends and the worries of feeling left out. School. Slights. Worries. Insecurities. Spurts of joy. New discoveries. Cold, cold Russian winter. Dasha’s crushes: Petya who’s the coolest ever as well as the nice guy who’s always there in art class, Maxim.
AYWM_PROMO_1
The whole book so beautifully captures the pre-teen and early teenage years, moreso perhaps because of the absence of Dasha’s regular caregiver. Every event is infused with the swings and sways of adolescence.
AYWM_PROMO_2
But it all adds up to something wonderful to read and behold. Something true about childhood and change and resiliency. About how the way we grow up shapes us even as we have no idea we’re being shaped. About how children need an anchor, like a mother, in the midst of the turmoil and mundaneness of everyday life at school. About how our stories are our own.
The book begins and ends in two entirely different places, but with the same girl, with the same name, with the same pink cheeks. That girl’s going to be okay.
+
This Picture Book Life: Can you tell us about how you’d classify this book in terms of memoir or fiction or combination of both?
Dasha Tolstikova: I was actually just asked today by the Swedish publisher of AYWM (what?! A Swedish publisher? I know! I am so excited!) whether I would mind if they refer to the book as a graphic memoir – which I think is very interesting. But really it’s a combination of both memoir and fiction – real life events and situations are a jumping off point – my mom DID go to America to study, I DID stay with my grandparents, I DO have best friends named Masha and Natasha – but there are also some places where things are exaggerated to move the plot forward.
AYWM_PROMO_3
TPBL: When did you have the idea and how did that turn into a graphic novel/lengthy picture book for Groundwood?
DT: The book started out as a graduate thesis project while I was at the School of Visual Arts. I had come across another Groundwood book actually, called Harvey, and became obsessed with it and its format – a picture book novel about a boy who comes home to find out that his father has died – and wanted to immediately make a book like it. It felt right to base it on a story that happened to me. I knew that I wanted it to be for older kids – so a story that happened when I was twelve seemed appropriate.
And I also knew from the beginning that I wanted it to be a long book. My first dummy was 212 pages and I had thought I would be able to finish the whole book in six months for our graduate show (hahahaha) – but then only completed the first chapter.
Sheila Barry, the wonderful Groundwood publisher, found my work online about a year after I graduated and thought it might be the right fit for them – obviously I was thrilled – I had felt (hoped?) like I was making it for Groundwood all along. And it was incredible to have someone in my corner while I DID finish the whole thing – it took two years – I scrapped everything I had done at school and started the art from scratch.
AYWM_PROMO_4
TPBL:The illustrations in A Year Without Mom are fantastic. This may sounds simplistic, but I love the variation in pages. You use white space, then a spread filled up with gray. You vary your composition to great effect so that we’re kind of zooming in and out with different page turns, seeing details then people then settings. Can you talk about your process and vision with illustrating a lengthier book like this?
DT: Thank you so much!
I really wanted every illustration to be emotionally meaningful, but also to be coherent and to move the story along – so I spent a lot of time thinking about individual compositions, but also about the flow of the book as a whole. I made a lot of really haphazard dummies and also these crazy diagrams – almost like shot lists for a movie.
AYWM_PROMO_7
TPBL: What’s your medium and who are some of your influences?
DT: I draw with a mechanical pencil and use sumi ink washes on Arches Hot Press watercolor paper. For this book all the color was added digitally.
Some of my illustration influences are: Anne Herbauts, Beatrice Allemagna, Laura Carlin, Marc Simont, The Provensens, Zach O’Hora, Isabelle Arsenault, Hadley Hooper, David Roberts, Tomi Ungerer, Carson Ellis – I can keep going for a long time…but then there are also fine artists and novels that I read and movies and everything around me all the time.
TPBL: How much American popular culture was part of your growing up in Moscow and what was your relationship to it?
My friends and I were actually pretty snobby about American pop culture when we were growing up – and I wasn’t super excited to move to the States – but I don’t even know what we were basing our opinions on – it’s not like we had a lot of exposure to it – we did read a lot of classics (Dickens and whatnot) and there was a sort of cult of England when I was growing up – so maybe America seemed in opposition of that somehow? But also maybe we were just bratty children.
But then there were American movies – which we LOVED – they screened a lot of old movies in movie theaters and we went frequently. After I moved away Masha continued to go on her own and eventually studied to be a director of photography in Paris.
They did broadcast soap operas and I got really into Santa Barbara as a child – when I moved to the States I was SO EXCITED to find it on TV – except of course the episodes they were showing in Russia were from much earlier seasons and none of my favorite characters were even on anymore.
AYWM_PROMO_6
TPBL: I assume you were 12 or so years old during the coup against Gorbachev. Did life change after that?
DT: You know, it did – but this is actually where the book is really true – that first year after the coup was a pretty selfish year for me – navigating life with my mom in America and growing up – I remember the personal stories a lot better – and I did move to the States in 1992 – I think things got even crazier politically after that – my former classmates have some intense stories of what life was like in the 90s – but I wasn’t there anymore…
TPBL: Can you tell us what happened after the book ends in terms of your own life? Did you really only stay in America for one year and then go back to Moscow? What about Maxim?! What is your story of moving to America and that adjustment?
DT: After my mom and I came to Urbana – we ended up staying for nine years – I went to high school and college there and she got her PhD. We went back to Moscow pretty frequently and after I graduated from the University of Illinois I moved back for about three years. Maxim is an amalgamation of two boys I had crushes on at the time – one of them continued to go to art school with my cousin and they even ended up at architecture college together – she said he asked about me from time to time – which warmed my heart, of course – the other boy I still have a little crush on and sometimes see out and about when I am home visiting my grandmother…
The adjustment of moving to America is something I am toying with as a subject – I feel like it’s such rich material and then also MIDDLE SCHOOL!
TPBL: The book is an entire year in which the character’s mother is abroad. How do you think that changes life for a twelve year old? What does one miss out on and what does one gain from that kind of experience?
DT: You know it’s hard for me to say – because this was my actual experience I can only speak to how it affected me – I think I grew up a little faster – but who knows what would have happened had my mom NOT gone to America, it might have all been the same, or entirely different. I generally feel like ALL experience propels us forward – it’s all it can do really – bad or good – so I think I tend to think of things that happen to me as stories – so this happened and then that – and it wasn’t good or bad it just happened and now I’m THIS kind of person – it’s sort of a positive sum game.
TPBL: Finally, your opening is this really interesting technique of almost a prologue, then a visual introduction to the setting and main character. That prologue is: “Once, when I was very small, I bit my mom’s finger.” It takes quite a few pages for us as readers to hear about that occasion. Tell us about why you used it to frame the opening and what it tells us about the character of Dasha.
DT: I wanted something that highlighted the relationship between the mother and the daughter immediately. It’s also a real thing that happened that I remember. I was about three and mom was feeding me a tomato and I bit her finger really hard – not on purpose – the tomato was just really good.
Thank you so much for having me.
Big thanks to Dasha for talking to us and for providing images!
dart
The DART Interview: Dasha Tolstikova
By Peggy Roalf Friday June 7, 2019
PR: Where do you live and how does that place contribute to your creative work?
Dasha Tolstikova: I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It’s sort of remote where I am. It feels like you are in the countryside when you are here. I really like this. I like being close to the city but also having this escape hatch from the insanity of Manhattan. I have been traveling a lot this year and I find I work much better when I am not in New York. New York is here for me to absorb things, but I output better when I am away from it.
PR: Please describe your workspace and how it contributes to the illustrator’s basic condition of working alone.
DT: I work from home. I am very lucky to have an entire room as my studio. It has two desks—one clean computer desk and one messy painting desk. There are flat files and all of my picture books—I have quite an extensive collection. I look at the picture books a lot for inspiration. I like working from home in large part (and this is sort of ridiculous) because I hate having the conversation about lunch. I always dreaded this part of the day when I’ve been in studios with other people. Also, I get really distracted by other people’s processes—it’s easy for me to lose my center when I am around other people—I am much more confident when I work by myself. I sort of get in a zone.
I don’t really get lonely [working alone] –I am a very social person and I see people many nights a week, I chat with my neighbors when I walk my dog, I also go to the city a few days a week for a freelance design job – so it’s a nice balance of alone focused time and social time.
PR: Please describe your work process—is most of your work done directly, or do you also use digital media?
DT: I start traditionally, with watercolor, pencils, and children’s gouache I bring back from Russia. Once I have a painting I scan it in and mess with it in Photoshop. I use a lightbox for painting illustrations, but also recently I’ve been looking at pictures I’ve taken on my phone and just going straight to watercolor as a sketch or a color study. Some of my work is just line—and that I usually do with a marker or different black pens. I have a thick Pilot pen I like and also this other thin Pentel clicky pen.
PR: What are some of your creative inspirations—artists, music, literature, culture in general—that you draw from in your work?
DT: I like to read. I read a lot of novels but also random pop psychology books, non-fiction, mysteries, poetry. Some of my recent favorites are Floridaby Lauren Groff, Exit Westby Mohsin Hamid, To the Lighthouseby Virginia Wolf. I’ve been very slowly making my way through John Cheever’s Collected Storiesand this biography of Alice Neel I borrowed from a friend four years ago.
I listen to a lot of music. I’ve unearthed an old stereo and I’ve been listening to mixed tapes (!) from high school and college. It’s sometimes nice and sometimes horrifying to be transported to a different time in your life like that.
I like going to see art in the world, and living in New York is obviously amazing for this—but I really don’t go as much as I’d like.
PR: How do you know when the art is finished—or when to stop working on it?
DT: It’s hard to describe. Most of the time you can just tell when something is done. It’s the best version of what it’s going to be at that moment. It doesn’t mean that I won’t return to it in a week, in a month, after it’s published and wish I had done something differently. (Some things happen very quickly – I do one sketch and feel happy and can go to final art right away. Other times I make fifty sketches and can’t get it right. My book dummies are generally very loose and it’s always maddening to come to a page that you’ve just thrown a very abstract doodle onto and decided you would figure it out later and now it’s later and you know how you want it to look but you have no idea how to get there.)
PR: Do you use photographic reference materials very much? If yes, how do you avoid the pitfalls that can arise when working from reference?
DT: I do use photographic reference, and I also take photos of myself doing the actions that I want my character to be doing. (I think all illustrators have those on their phones and computers—they are super embarrassing but also hilarious.)
My style isn’t super realistic so I don’t really feel worried about copyright or anything like that. I don’t trace photographs—I just look and try to grasp the basic idea of the thing I am referencing. A really long time ago someone told me that this is the most important thing in representing something—to try to represent its essence, whether it’s a person or a piece of furniture.
PR: I noticed that you attended the 2019 Bologna Book Fair. Can you tell the readers what were some of the best take-aways from that experience?
DT: I have been aware of the fair for about twenty years but this was the first time I was able to go. I didn’t have any career goals in mind—I didn’t plan to network or meet publishers—I only wanted to look at books from other countries that I may not be able to find in the US, I had had a complicated year creatively and wanted a recharge.
The fair it’s HUGE! And it’s all kids books and everyone you meet loves kids books and in the end I saw so many friends from all over the world. If you go, I would recommend getting there before the fair starts. I got there in the middle of the first day, so it felt like I was playing catch up the whole time. There is so much to do—talks, awards, art and books to look a—you want to give yourself all the time you can for all of this. Also, lots of things are happening in the city of Bologna after the fair end—book signings, openings, and (maybe most importantly) dinners!
PR: Your new book project has serious connections to being in the woods. What is there about being in nature that draws you to this environment? How do hiking and other outdoor activities play into your art making?
DT: I have lived in cities my whole entire life. As a child I loathed to go outside in the summer because I didn’t like bugs and all I wanted to do was read. But the older I get the more I am connected to the woods, to hiking, to nature. I find it relaxing and meditative—I like to go on walks in the green and listen to audio books or music. Trees are mostly around longer than us and it feels grounding and releasing to connect to something that transcends the human life span. Everyday worries fall away in the face of trees.
PR: If you could live and work anywhere, where would that be—and why?
DT: Hmmm. This is a really hard one for me because I think about this all the time and I don’t really have a solution. Maybe somewhere REALLY remote? Maybe in a house that overlooks water so I can look up and clean my sight line? But maybe the real answer is to keep moving a bit and go and work in new places; to be inspired by different things—shapes, colors, smells?
PR: What advice would you give to a young artist starting to apply for Artist Residencies—about figuring out which ones are right for the stage in your career as an artist?
I love residencies. I’ve only done a couple—but they have been very inspirational to me and I want to continue doing them. My main advice is to have realistic goals and also to be gentle with yourself if you don’t achieve what you set out to. One of the first residencies I did was up in the Caskills. I was going up there for a week and I had planned to get good at wood carving (which I had recently taken up), finish a book dummy, start working on this short story and make a four page comic. In the end I made three small paintings and went on fifteen hours worth of hikes. At first I was disappointed at not being more productive but all the hiking made the week pretty relaxed and in the end I just let it go. Those little paintings have led me to keep making more and better work.
PR: What would be your dream job—the one thing you have always hoped for in an assignment?
DT: I would love to do book jackets for novels for adults. Riverhead does very beautiful covers—I would love to work with them. I also would like to design a line of something material, like sheets? Plates? Stationery? Gift boxes for high end fashion? Other fancy items? There are lots of things I’d love to do.
Dasha Tolstikova is the author/illustrator of the graphic memoir A Year Without Mom. She also illustrated The Jacket, by Kirsten Hall (New York Times ReviewNotable book of 2014); If a T-Rex Crashes Your Birthday Party,by Jill Esbaum; Friend or Foe,by John Sobol; and Violet and The Woof,by Rebecca Grabill. Currently, Dasha is hard at work on her new book The Bad Chair (Groundwood, Fall 2020)—her debut as a picture book author!
Clients include: Harper Collins, Enchanted Lion Books, Groundwood Books, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, HBO, Icon Undies, Middlebury Alumni Magazine,Moscow News,Rachel Antonoff. Dasha recently launched a newsletter, which readers may sign up for here.
Originally from Moscow, Russia she is now based in Brooklyn.When not at her desk, Dasha enjoys spending time with her dog Muffin. She recently started a newsletter, which you can sign up for here.
Website: https://www.dashatolstikova.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heytheredasha/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/heytheredasha
Dasha Tolstikova is a New York based illustrator, originally from Moscow, Russia.
She is the author/illustrator of the award winning graphic memoir
A YEAR WITHOUT MOM. Dasha also illustrated THE JACKET, by Kirsten Hall (New York Times Review Notable book of 2014); IF A T-REX CRASHES YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY, by Jill Esbaum; FRIEND OR FOE, by John Sobol; and the upcoming VIOLET AND THE WOOF, by Rebecca Grabill (Fall 2018).
When not at her desk, Dasha enjoys spending time with her dog Muffin.
Clients include: Harper Collins, Enchanted Lion Books, Groundwood Books, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, HBO, Icon Undies, Middlebury Alumni Magazine, Moscow News, Rachel AntonoffRead Less
MEMBER SINCE: FEBRUARY 3, 2012
QUOTED: "I wanted to find something that would warrant the long format but still be young enough so that kids would want to look at. I always envisioned it as a book for 12-year-olds and thereabout. So I went back to think what my own life was like when I was that age. As it happens, that was the year my mom came to America and I stayed behind. I didn’t really intend the book as a graphic memoir, more as a story based on something I experienced."
A Visit with Dasha Tolstikova
h1February 23rd, 2016 by jules
“My name is Dasha. I am twelve years old.”
(Click to enlarge)
Last year, I read Dasha Tolstikova’s A Year Without Mom, released by Groundwood Books in October. Dasha and I started a conversation about this book at year’s end, and life (as it is wont to do) got in the way quite a bit, interrupting our chat, but we finally wrapped it up and I’m posting it today. Better late than never.
I featured Dasha’s artwork here back in 2013, and it’s wonderful to be talking about this book today. A Year Without Mom is what Maria Russo in the New York Times Book Review called a “perceptive story about change, aloneness, ambition and, ultimately, resilience” and Kirkus Reviews called “fascinating and heartfelt.” This 176-page illustrated book follows Dasha herself through a year in Moscow with her grandparents after her mother goes to America to study advertising. Politics are touched upon—essentially, Gorbachev’s leave with Yeltsin taking up the reins—but the book also tells the universal story of a middle-schooler. Crushes, the dynamics between friends, school — all of this without her mother near.
Dasha visits today to talk about this book and what’s next on her plate. I thank her for sharing.
* * *
Jules: Hi, Dasha! Thanks for chatting with me about your wonderful book. Can you talk about the decision to tell this story via a graphic memoir? Is it something you’d been thinking about doing for a while now?
Dasha: Hi, Jules. Thanks so much for having me on.
It all started with Harvey! I found this lovely book at the Strand, called Harvey: The Day I Became Invisible [pictured below]. I was in graduate school and had only recently stopped working in film. This book was the perfect cross-section between being a book, movie, and a picture book and a novel — and all the things I was interested in. I knew immediately that this was the format I wanted to pursue.
“My story begins just at the end of Winter,
right at the very beginning of Spring.”
(Click to enlarge)
“But for my mother, Spring number one, I can say for sure, is the damn spring of black snow piled on the sides of the road and damn puddles that grow up by the door and damn water that comes in all wet and damn sand and damn salt that penetrate the house and the damn basement that starts to stink of damp. …”
(Click to enlarge)
“The race began under a magnificent April sun.”
(Click to enlarge)
Pictured above:
Three spreads from and cover of Harvey
The story came after. I wanted to find something that would warrant the long format but still be young enough so that kids would want to look at. I always envisioned it as a book for 12-year-olds and thereabout. So I went back to think what my own life was like when I was that age. As it happens, that was the year my mom came to America and I stayed behind. I didn’t really intend the book as a graphic memoir, more as a story based on something I experienced. It was important to me that the book be emotional-factual, not necessarily fact-factual, so I never even really thought of it as such while I was working on it.
Does that make sense? (I picked up this saying from Marshall Arisman at SVA. I feel like every single person that went to SVA punctuates their speech with “does this make sense?” after every statement.)
(Click second image to see spread in its entirety)
“She is gone.”
(Click to enlarge)
Jules: I say that all the time to people, despite not being an SVA grad! I worry I say it too much, in fact. I’m always checking on my own clarity, I suppose.
And, yes, what you said makes sense. You wanted to emphasize the emotional beats, yes? Was it easy for you to recall the emotions? Are you someone who remembers that time in your life vividly?
(Click first image to see spread in its entirety)
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)
Dasha: Yeah, I wanted to try and engage the reader in the same emotional way that I was engaged at the time, which made me feel like the facts of the situation weren’t as important.
It was both hard and easy to recall the emotions. At the time, I was feeling that the way I interacted with life emotionally was not that different from my 12-year-old self. (I’m not sure this is true anymore, but I am generally overwhelmingly empathetic, and I think it helps to tap into that.) I did a lot of free-form writing to recall the events, jotting down everything I remembered from my childhood around the time. And then one thing would lead to another and another, taking me into unexpected places. I am also still friends with Masha and Natasha, and I asked them a lot of questions about what they remembered, which was very interesting in itself — the way memory works and how emphasis is placed on such different aspects for each person. But at some point you also have to make decisions about what is important and what is not, and it creates a false hierarchy, because who is to say what is more or less important? The only reason you are making that separation is to serve the end of a story and also the way you want the reader to react. The same story can be told in an optimistic and a pessimistic way — without changing much of the facts, just the reaction to them.
(Click second image to see spread in its entirety)
“Masha, Natasha and I go to Gone with the Wind three times — even though neither one of them liked the book as much as I did, we do all love crinoline dresses. …”
(Click to enlarge)
Jules: Yes, it’s a fascinating look at memory and, as you put it, the hierarchies we form in our minds. Did Masha and Natasha place emphasis on the same memories in such a way that made you question your own? Or vice versa? Does that question make sense? (I just did it again.) I think it’s an intriguing thing we all see play out in our own lives.
Also, I wanna back up a bit: You mentioned working in film, and I know you briefly mentioned it too in your 2013 7-Imp visit (which I very much enjoyed). Can you talk about your work in film and how you think it influences your illustration work now?
Pictured above (and below):
Pieces from Dasha’s portfolio
Dasha: I think they had their own memories, but it didn’t really make me question my own so much. I had had the experience of moving back to Russia after college and reconnecting with my grade-school friends, whom I had not really been in touch with for ten years. I had thought a lot about them in those ten years and was so excited to see them, but when we got together it was very clear that my memory of them was more acute. They had stayed in the same place, and it changed for them, but for me it was frozen. This was one of my first experiences of noticing how memory shifts from person to person. And I learned that you cannot expect another person to hold the same experiences as important as you, even if you were there at the same time.
Yeah, sure. I worked in film for about six years. I started out as a translator in Russia, working on commercials, and then came to New York and worked first (very briefly) in reality TV and then in independent film. I mostly worked on the production side of things, renting equipment and making sure people had food and transportation on set. It turned out that I really had a head for the logistical. But I also read a lot of scripts and thought about storytelling and visual representation in the narrative sense — for the first time in my life. Which I think really influences the way I think about making books now — about turning points and beats and the flow of something. Both are a time-based media, so I think it makes a lot of sense.
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Jules: These illustrations are done in pencil and ink wash. I’m no artist, so let me make sure I understand: Doesn’t ink wash mean you’re using the kind of black ink used in calligraphy? Can you talk about that a bit?
Also, sorry for my belated reply. I blame the holidays. Did you have a good New Year’s? And, while we’re on the subject, what’s next for you in 2016? If you mention any books or projects, by chance, feel free to send as many images as you’d like, because I love seeing your art.
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Dasha: I’m sorry for my belated reply. I went away to Russia, and then my family came back — and then I took four days to try and not talk to anyone and quit Facebook and then had to go back to work on Monday and now we are here!
I did have a wonderful New Year’s. It’s one of my favorite holidays. I have a really childish belief in the clean-slate aspect of the year’s turn. It always feels great to me, no matter how actually arbitrary it is.
I still have some projects I am finishing up from last year, two picture books written by other people — one for Groundwood, dark and broody, and another for Sterling about a birthday party. It’s very, very different. I am trying to get them done as soon as I can, because then I don’t have to start my next book until March. And I am really looking forward to some time when I don’t have much due to regroup and maybe experiment a little and get back into writing. My goal for this year is to write my own picture book and originate some other projects. I am having a real moment with poetry at the moment—not sure where that is going—but the rumination of it feels great!
A sneak peek at the book from Goundwood
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What about you? Is it weird for me to ask what you are up to this year? I would love to know about your projects!
Also, are you going to be at ALA this weekend? I am coming up tomorrow and staying through Sunday. Would love to meet in person, if you are going to be there!
To get back to the A Year Without Mother question at hand:
Yes, the ink that I use for ink wash is just regular sumi ink that I dilute to different darknesses. I have four jars on my desk — very light dilution, medium dilution, very diluted, and then just plain black ink (which I rarely use, to be honest). And then I apply them with a regular watercolor brush to desired darkness. I’ve been using this method since graduate school but am starting to experiment now with water-soluble vs. non-soluble inks. We’ll see how that will change what I am doing.
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Jules: Once again, a huge delay. And this one is on me — because of travel, the flu, SNOW!
Clearly, I was not at ALA, and now I feel like a jerk for not having responded to your question about that. Did you get to sit in the room for the awards announcements? I guess not, if you left on Sunday. Did any of your big favorites get a medal?
Your projects sound exciting — and very different from each other. And “a real moment with poetry” sounds like a good thing.
What am I up to this year? Well, I’m supposed to be working on a book, but I get in my own way sometimes, so it’s been slow-going. But I know I will travel to Connecticut this year to do some research for the book, so I hope that will kick the project into gear. I’ll speak in Chicago in a few weeks at the Center for Teaching Through Children’s Books at National Louis University, and I’ll speak at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest in April. And other than that … well, we Danielsons hope to move into a new house this year, and it’s all very daunting. I probably shouldn’t plan a lot, because moving is a huge thing. We’re already at the we-could-just-set-everything-on-fire-instead-of-packing stage. Oof.
One more question: What are you reading now?
Dasha: Hi!
ALA was really fun. I felt like a real professional. It’s been really nice the last few years to meet more and more people who love books the way I do. It’s really given me a foothold in the world. And yes, I could not be more thrilled about Sophie’s much much-deserved win. Her work is so wonderful and she was my advisor in grad school, so it feels personally exciting as well. And Christian Robinson is one of my favorite illustrators these days. I guess I am not alone.
I am reading so many things all the time — Lucia Berlin short stories and this book about octopi, an illustrated memoir called Paris in Winter, books on gardening, also a lot of things about meditation and yoga. I think we are really having a moment with that stuff as a culture. I got a bunch of galleys while I was at ALA and am excited to read this book about Oneida, the tableware family. I guess they were really kooky. Also Pax, the Sara Pennypacker book that is supposed to be a real weeper. And the new Boris Fishman, etc. I really love reading so much.
And I’m so excited you are writing a NEW BOOK! YAY!
Moving is horrible. I did it last year. But it’s also exciting. And actually setting some of the stuff on fire might not be a bad idea. Very cleansing! I get rid of so much stuff every time I move. And then it just accumulates all over again.
Jules: Yes, it’s hard, the moving thing. I realize it’s a really First-World complaint, as they say, but I wish I could just snap my fingers and have it done.
I read Pax aloud to my daughters last year. (We read a galley.) It’s really quite good.
Thanks for chatting with me and especially for sharing your artwork here at 7-Imp again. I look forward to what’s next for you, Dasha!
* * * * * * *
All of Dasha’s art posted by her permission. Art from Harvey posted by permission of Groundwood Books.
QUOTED: "a closely observed account of someone longing to be noticed."
The Bad Chair
Dasha Tolstikova. Groundwood, $18.95 (40p) ISBN 978-1-77306-246-4
Tolstikova (Violet and the Woof) writes a closely observed account of someone longing to be noticed. Vivi is a tan-skinned girl who engages in nightly sessions of hide-and-seek with her stuffed yellow monkey. In Tolstikova's world, inanimate domestic objects can talk--they're all portrayed in bright, loose art--and the child's playful quizzing while spotting a deerstalker cap is part of her hide-andseek ritual: "Have you seen Monkey?" she asks Cat, Chair, Kettle, and Plant. One night bright ted Chair, longing to be the object Vivi hunts for, intentionally spills a drink all over Monkey, who has to be laundered: "Maybe tonight Vivi will look for ME!" Chair thinks, hopes high. Though Vivi is temporarily fooled, she becomes outraged when she uncovers the tuse. Readers will feel Chair's pain as Monkey and Vivi retreat together ("I have so much to tell you," Vivi croons exclusively). In the end, Vivi has a change of heatt, but the story's real draw is the clash between Tolstikova's cheery, naif-style artwork and her mordant portrait of an uncertain soul. Ages 3--7. Agent: Stephen Barr. Writers House. (Oct.)
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"The Bad Chair." Publishers Weekly, vol. 237, no. 39, 28 Sept. 2020, p. 62. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638637524/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=22d2fbfc. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "cute concept."
Tolstikova, Dasha THE BAD CHAIR Groundwood (Children's None) $18.95 10, 27 ISBN: 978-1-77306-246-4
Chair just wants “to be in on the game."
Every night before bed, Vivi, a brown-skinned girl with puffy pigtails, and Monkey, a child-sized stuffed animal, play a game. Monkey hides in plain sight under a blanket, Vivi pretends to look everywhere for Monkey, Vivi questions the witnesses: Chair, Plant, Kettle, and Cat. Chair is the only witness who cares about the game. But the role of witness is not enough for Chair. Chair loves Vivi and wants to be more involved. But night after night, Monkey comes out of hiding, and the pair leaves Chair sleepless and jealous. One night, Chair decides that if Monkey needed a bath—say, if some juice were spilled on Monkey—then Chair could take Monkey’s place. But the plan backfires. When Monkey doesn’t turn up, Vivi only looks harder for Monkey and becomes upset with Chair when Vivi realizes Chair had a hand in the disappearance. But all ends well when Vivi comes to understand Chair’s intentions. Vivi is easily seen as a beloved adult, with Chair as a misunderstood, childlike character who just wants some attention, making this story a clever representation of all-too-real feelings of the young. Bright, expressive illustrations add to the chuckleworthy drama. There are some off notes: Plant’s falling “in love” with Cat is an odd touch for this age group, and the Monkey-as-peer is rather unsettling both conceptually and visually. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 71.8% of actual size.)
Cute concept; readers’ mileage may vary. (Picture book. 3-6)
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"Tolstikova, Dasha: THE BAD CHAIR." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A635239884/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7379dcbf. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "Neighborliness, sibling friendship, and bits of a fractured fairy tale can't overcome the book's limitations."
Grabill, Rebecca VIOLET AND THE WOOF Harper/HarperCollins (Children's Fiction) $17.99 10, 9 ISBN: 978-0-06-244110-2
A modern-day Little Red Riding Hood travels through her apartment building.
Violet, a determined girl wearing a short red dress, and her toddler brother, Peter, are exploring their building. Both are white. While pulling Peter's wagon through the hallway, she starts telling him a familiar tale. In the elevator, they meet a woman with dark brown skin and white hair carrying a dog whose shadow appears to be quite ferocious. When Peter says: "WOOF!" (his only word), Violet assures him (and herself) that it's not a wolf. Violet informs the woman that they are bringing their sick neighbor Papa Jean-Louis "soup and cookies," and she responds, "I'll be heading that way myself." After traversing deep woods with animals and a "damp, dingy, cave," they finally reach their destination, where they encounter someone all wrapped up on the couch. Is it Papa Jean-Louis? Or is it a creature with eyes "so big," "ears so...hairy," and teeth too sharp? Violet's storytelling skills and overactive imagination are augmented by the colorful illustrations, done in a naive style and combining the everyday environment and the fairy-tale world. It's charming, but it missteps. Violet's reassuring interjections to Peter during her own narration interrupt the flow of the story, and positioning the two dark-skinned people as objects of fear is unfortunate despite the revelation that they are clearly benevolent.
Neighborliness, sibling friendship, and bits of a fractured fairy tale can't overcome the book's limitations. (Picture book. 4-6)
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"Grabill, Rebecca: VIOLET AND THE WOOF." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2018. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A548137858/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1823f62d. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
Violet and the Woof
Rebecca Grabill, illus. by Dasha Tolstikova. HarperCollins, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-244110-2
Grabill (Halloween Good Night) swaps the forest for an apartment building in this contemporary story-within-a-story spin on "Little Red Riding Hood." When red-clad Violet and her younger brother must deliver food to a sick neighbor in their building, they set out together, basket, wagon, and stuffed animal in tow. Violet's imagination-filled narration--involving a "damp, dingy cave" (the building's laundry room) and "brush and brambles" (stairs)--adds an element of adventure to their errand. Upon arriving at their destination, they discover their "neighbor" silently sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket. "Wolf!" Violet exclaims upon spotting his suspiciously large eyes and hairy ears. "Woof!" her brother more accurately echoes, and the pair chases the creature down the hallway, where their real neighbor happily accepts a slobbery kiss from the dog and a thermos of soup from the children. Illustrations by Tolstikova (Friend or Foe)--a bright mixture of ink wash, acrylic paint, and pencil renderings in red and yellow, green and blue--layer the pretend forest and the building. And the playful expressions on the children's faces make it clear that Violet is (mostly) in control of her story--and its happy ending. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Victoria Wells Arms, Wells Arms Literary. Illustrator's agent: Sean McCarthy, McCarthy Literary. (Oct.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
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"Violet and the Woof." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 38, 17 Sept. 2018, p. 82. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A557781758/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=667597c3. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "With quiet artwork and a story that has a fable-like quality to it, this title presents a unique addition to the picture book field."
SOBOL, John
Friend or Foe?
Illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova.
Groundwood Books, 2016.
Unp. Illus. Gr. Preschool-2. 978-1-55498-707-7.
Hdbk. $18.95
A lonely mouse and a cat high up in a palace gaze at each other every night and every night the mouse wonders, "Is the cat friend or foe? " One day, he decides to find out and bravely enters the palace to meet the cat. What follows is an oddly gentle, yet suspenseful story.
The illustrations are described as "graphite and ink wash ... with some digital colour". The primarily grey palette lends to the gentle tone of the story. The few dashes of colour are subtle touches that do not lend to drama. Most of the pictures are simple, featuring the main components of the story (the mouse, the house, the cat, the castle), which helps to focus attention onto the story. While the illustrations are unique and create a quiet sense of suspense, action is not well portrayed and the characters are not particularly expressive. This supports the somewhat calm mood of the book, but it does take away from the climax of the story.
The story itself is unique and masterfully written. As discussed earlier, there is creeping suspense as the mouse journeys to meet the cat. Will he be caught by humans before he can get to the cat? Will he be eaten or welcomed with open paws? The story is not long, with a moderate amount of text on each page; however, the mouse's journey through the castle's corridors somehow feels longer (in a good way!). Without giving it away, the ending is sly in a number of ways. Younger audience members may be a little lost, but older preschoolers and parents will enjoy the understated humour and perhaps even discuss the melancholy undertone.
With quiet artwork and a story that has a fable-like quality to it, this title presents a unique addition to the picture book field.
Thematic Links: Friendship
[E] Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Resource Links
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Tucker, Sadie. "Sobol, John: Friend or Foe?" Resource Links, vol. 22, no. 2, Dec. 2016, p. 8+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A476843278/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=779f2697. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "Children with a tolerance for ambiguity will enjoy talking about the riddle of an ending."
Friend or Foe?
John Sobel, illus. by Dasha Tolstikova.
Groundwood (PGW, dist.), $18.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-55498-407-7
With the practiced pace of a seasoned storyteller, author/musician Sobel draws readers into a standoff between a cat who lives in a palace and a mouse in a small house below. "Every evening the cat climbed the stairs to the palace tower and sat in the highest window," he writes. "Every night, as darkness settled, the cat peered down at the mouse, and the mouse stared up at the cat. This is how it was." The lonely mouse is so fascinated by the cat, despite the potential danger, that he finds a way into the palace, up the stairs, and into the cat's room, with startling results. At the point when narrative convention calls for resolution, Sobel offers enigma. Tolstikova's (The Jacket) delicately washed spreads of gray and red generalize rather than distinguish, as befits a fable. Her animal heroes are more angular than adorable, and she resists the urge to fill the palace with luxurious furniture and draperies; it's a place of quiet restraint and stony silence. Children with a tolerance for ambiguity will enjoy talking about the riddle of an ending. Ages 4-7. (Oct.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
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"Friend or Foe?" Publishers Weekly, vol. 263, no. 33, 15 Aug. 2016, p. 67. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A461444596/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=377ca3b4. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "Readers will wish the sequel were available instantly."
A Year Without Mom
Dasha Tolstikova. Groiindwood (PGW, dist.), $ 19.95 (176p) ISBN 978-1-55498-692-7
Set amid the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this absorbing graphic memoir follows a year in the life of a 12-year-old Moscow schoolgirl left in the care of her grandparents while her mother studies in the U.S. "Grandpa wakes me up and has the tea brewed by the time I shuffle into the kitchen, but I am on my own for everything else," Dasha explains. Working in black and white enlivened by occasional splashes of red and blue, Tolstikova (TheJacket) uses a distinctive, naif pen-and-ink style to capture the bare streets of wintry Moscow and the lively expressions of Dasha and her friends. Readers will discover that beyond the bleak Soviet setting--before moving, her mother wrote "ads for places like Bread Factory #8"--much of the memoir is familiar pre-adolescent territory: difficulties with friends, important exams, and clothing woes. A final section reveals that Dasha will spend the next year in the States with her mother, and the story follows their first weeks there--then ends abruptly. Readers will wish the sequel were available instantly. Ages 10-14. Agent: Sean McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary Agency. (Oct.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 PWxyz, LLC
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"A Year Without Mom." Publishers Weekly, vol. 262, no. 33, 17 Aug. 2015, p. 75. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A426033930/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2ebb47e4. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "The idea's originality and the child-friendly instructions at the end of Book's tale make this a novel gift pick."
Hall, Kirsten THE JACKET Enchanted Lion Books (Children's Picture Books) $17.95 10, 27 ISBN: 978-1-59270-168-1
When a dog named Egg Cream muddies the cover of his young mistress's favorite book, the girl figures out how to make everyone feel better. The text is in the third person, but the story is told from a book's point of view--a whimsical rarity. The book--aptly named Book--has been waiting, Corduroy-like, for a child to appreciate his fine qualities. ("He was solid and strong. His words were smart and playful.") After the girl--known simply as "the girl"--has acquired Book, he and the girl are ecstatic companions until the girl's other love--whom Book refuses to call anything but Dog--manages to muddy Book. The mixed-media illustrations do a beautiful job of capturing such things as the interior of a bookstore, the girl's love for both her companions and the tragic moment of mud. Fortunately, if unrealistically, the mud has not damaged Book's pages; Book bravely refuses to cry, as "Tears would ruin his ink and paper." After a dark night for Book and the girl, the girl wakes up refreshed and ready to solve the problem of Book's muddy cover. Book's understanding of the girl's love for her dog is a particularly poignant inclusion, both textually and visually. The idea's originality and the child-friendly instructions at the end of Book's tale make this a novel gift pick for the juvenile bibliophile. (book-jacket instructions) (Picture book. 4-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Hall, Kirsten: THE JACKET." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2014. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A383902600/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fe29717c. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "a challenging and entirely unique Dutch import."
Lindelauf, Benny NINE OPEN ARMS Enchanted Lion Books (Children's Fiction) $16.95 6, 24 ISBN: 978-1-59270-146-9
At the end of an isolated road outside a small village in Holland in 1937, Fing and her eccentric family find themselves in a strange house that gives up its secrets reluctantly and with far-reaching consequences.Young Fing is stalwart, compassionate and truth-seeking, but she is not an omniscient narrator, for she learns the intricate, tangled stories as they are doled out piecemeal by her grandmother Oma Mei, who is hiding as many secrets as the house. The work's three-part construction weaves the events surrounding Fing's family with an earlier cast of characters from the 1860s. Each part has a distinct tone and sensibility. In the first and third parts, Fing and her sisters rise to the challenges of life with their ever optimistic father, their somewhat inept older brothers, and the mad and mysterious Hatsi. All the while, they grow increasingly uncomfortable with the puzzles posed by the house and Oma Mei's sometimes-contradictory tales. The middle part, Charley and Nienevee's story, is narrated by Oma and has a darker and more sinister quality. Lindelauf lures readers into the intrigue and mystery of it all and then demands their intense concentration. Every element of the tale has a purpose, and in the end, the multiple layers of past and present separate and come together in surprising, often discomfiting twists and turns.A challenging and entirely unique Dutch import. (translator's note, character list, slang word list, map, contents) (Fiction. 11-14)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Lindelauf, Benny: NINE OPEN ARMS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2014. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A367795192/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=eca6e6cc. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.
QUOTED: "This is a strange, somber, and oddly compelling narrative."
* Nine Open Arms
by Benny Lindelauf; trans. from the Dutch by John Nieuwenhuizen
Intermediate, Middle School Enchanted Lion 256 pp.
6/14 978-1-59270-146-9 $16.95
It takes a while to realize that the main character in this Dutch import is a building, the eponymous Nine Open Arms, a rundown, back-to-front, peculiar brick house situated beyond the cemetery "where names came to an end." The story opens when a family of nine--hapless dreamer and cigar-maker father, tough grandmother, four almost-grownup sons, and three younger daughters--moves into this house and tries to figure out its mysteries, including the tombstone in the cellar, the forbidden room, and Oompah Hatsi, the homeless man who moves into the hedge. While the setting is specific (the Dutch province of Limburg in the 1930s), the whole thing feels more like a folktale, with a folktale's harshness. (The bully girl at school, Fat Tonnie, is said to have bashed a dog to death with a hammer.) Halfway into the tale, we travel back to the 1860s to a doomed love story between a villager and a young woman of the Traveler people, and we start to figure out the origins of the steeped-in-sadness of Nine Open Arms. Then back to the main narrative, where kindness, courage, and truth-telling redeem the tragic past. Up to a point. This is a strange, somber, and oddly compelling narrative, a different combination of flavors than we would find in a book originally published in North America. SARAH ELLIS
* indicates a book that the editors believe to be an outstanding example of its genre, of books of this particular publishing season, or of the author's body of work. For a complete key to the review abbreviations as well as for bios of our reviewers, please visit hbook.com/horn-book-magazine
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Ellis, Sarah. "Nine Open Arms." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 90, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2014, p. 114+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A382084581/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6022b265. Accessed 13 Dec. 2020.