My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter

This is a great book to introduce Georgia O'Keefe to a group of students. The illustrations are lovely and the text is appropriate for elementary aged students. My students retained so much of the story that they were facinated when they could create flowers...big (like Georgia).

Georgia O'Keeffe was always different..."I did things other people don't do." She didn't dress like the other young girls, or wear her hair in braids, and she was content to be alone..."I was satisfied to be all by myself." From an early age knew she wanted to be an artist..."Maybe I could make something beautiful..." Jeanette Winter takes us on the journey of Georgia O'Keeffe's remarkable life, from her birth in Wisconsin in 1887, to art school in Chicago and New York, and then on to her years of painting in Texas, New York City, and finally the New Mexican desert. Her simple, spare prose, complete with quotations from Georgia's own writings, is engaging, and complemented by charming and evocative illustrations that enhance the story. Georgia O'Keeffe loved the sky, sunset, red hills, flowers, and bones, and she painted the world around her BIG, so that people would see it the way she did. Perfect for kids 6-10, My Name Is Georgia is a lovely introductory biography that will whet the appetite of young art lovers everywhere, and brings home the important message...Never be afraid to follow your dream.

This is an aexcellent book for any elementary school teaching incorporating art history into any classroom. The illustrations are bright and full of color, and communicate O'Keefe's mature style. The story starts with Georgia as an independent young girl and follows her throughout her life, all in an easy to understand plot.

While the text is simple, the message is suitable for children of all ages. Not just a book for budding artists, but a wonderful book for any child who has contemplated following his or her own dream instead of following the masses. The illustrations are beautiful and the book as a whole is inspiring.

My two year old loves this book despite the fact I am sure she doesn't understand all of the text. The pictures are bold and mirror Georgia O'Keefe's style, and each page has no more than two sentences. If I were to buy this as a gift, I would buy it for a child between the ages of 5 and 7.