Breaking Waves

Praise

“With quiet intensity, the book’s words and pictures set Homer’s work and self-sufficient style of living within the frame of this fascination. Children ages 4-8 may almost feel that they have joined in the artist’s creative process. . . .”—Wall Street Journal

★ “The watercolor and pencil illustrations are beautiful and capture the different feelings the sea can conjure. The images are at times calm and peaceful and at times thrilling and dangerous. These illustrations are reason enough to add this book to collections but, in addition to the gorgeous visuals, this work is rich with sensory language. . . . A beautiful and rich work of literary nonfiction.”—School Library Journal, Starred Review

“A solid introduction to a major American artist.”—Publishers Weekly

“It takes a special talent to convey the essence of an artist to children in an understandable way. Burleigh does so expertly, highlighting Winslow Homer’s fascination and love for the ocean and its waves, by pulling out and repeating words of action—splash, shimmer, calm, roar—to convey the emotion of Homer’s seascapes as he captures with paint the beauty of the Maine coast where his family vacationed.”—Booklist

“Interspersing Homer’s actual words with imagined daily activities, Burleigh’s text brings readers into the artist’s sensibility and creative process. . . . Quite authentically Homer.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Burleigh portrays a disciplined, patient Homer over the course of five seasons, relentlessly observing storms from perilous vantage points, making notes and sketches to aid memory, and refusing to still his brush after completing fine paintings that didn’t quite rise to his own expectations. Careful viewers will note the shift between Minor’s watercolor styles: smooth and reportorial when tracking Homer’s quotidian activities away from his easel, and increasingly loose and atmospheric when addressing Homer’s intense seaside observations and efforts at perfecting his craft.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books