HIT: Art/Artist fiction titles (LONG)

[Roz Goodman <bsrlg@aurora.alaska.edu>]

Thanks to all who responded.

My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok  Itconcerns a young artistic genius who
is also a Hasidic Jew, and the conflicting demands made on him by his art and
his faith.  It's a great book.

The Cartoonist -Betsy Byars -
The Monument-Paulson
My name is Asher Lev-Potok
A shadow like a leopard- Levoy
Tunes for bears to dance to-Cormier
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler -Konigsburg
The Second Mrs.Giaconda-E.L. Konigsburg
In Summer Light_ by Zibby O'Neal

Anew book on the Peales by Mary Lyons think the title is Poison Place.  It is for
older readers as it deals mainly with the work of the elder Peale and his
obsessions with money.  the poison refers to the arsenic he used to preserve
animals.This first title is out of print, but if you own it already, it is a 
haunting
read:

Cages of Glass, Flowers of Time, by Charlotte Culin, Bradbury Press, 1979.
Deserted by her artist father, Claire must live for the first time with her
mother, an alcoholic who alternately abuses her, and--worst of all--forbids
Claire to do the drawing and painting she loves.  Claire struggles to trust the
people who can help her survive.

Chicago Blues, by Julie Reece Deaver, HarperCollins, 1995.
Lissa, a 17-year-old art student living on her own in Chicago, must raise her
11-year-old sister when their alcoholic mother beocmes incapable of caring for
her.

Send me Down a Miracle, by Han Nolan, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1996.
A sleepy, God-fearing southern town erupts in chaos when a flamboyant artist
from New York City returns to her birthplace for an artistic experiment.

MONET'S GHOST  by Chelsea Yarbro, a middle school fantasy in which
children get caught inside a painting.  I read it, since I obviously love books
about art and artists, and found it mediocre.

The following is from another LM_NET request for novels that might be used for
art history students.

William Golding's The Spire
Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard
Robert Hellenga's The Sixteen Pleasures
Jane Urquhart's The Underpainter
John Fowles' The Ebony Tower
Elizabeth Borton de Trevino I, Juan de Pareja
The Color from the Light With-in
Irving's The Agony and the Ecstasy
Jane Louise Curry  THE LOTUS CUP (about the making of bone china and
decorating it - in the Pottery Capital:  East Liverpool
Ayn Rand Books
Irving Stone Lust for life (Van Gogh)
Paul J. McAuley Pasquale's Angel -speculative history about a series of murders
in a Florence that has already undergone the Industrial Revolution--even
though it is the time of DaVinci, Michaelangelo, and Raphael.

Clair Cooperstein-Johanna  fiction in journal and letter form relates the story of
Johanna Van Gogh (Theo's widow) who tries to make the world aware of Van
Gogh's work.  This is really engaging--I have had teen-aged girls who were
interested in neither books nor art just love it.

Herbert Lieberman-The Girl with the Botticelli Eyes- a grisly thriller about a
museum manager and a serial killer--you do learn alot about how special
museum exhibits are put together (a Botticelli retrospective, of course).

Pilar Llorente:The Apprentice- YA novel about an apprentice artist in
Renaissance Italy.  You learn alot about preparing walls for frescoes.  I had two
non-reading 8th grade boys who loved this book.

Neil GordonThe Sacrifice of Isaac:-This is one of my all-time favorite thrillers.
While the subject isn't art, per se (it's about two estranged brothers whose father
was a powerful founder of modern Israel) a key to the mystery and to their
relationship is in Caravaggio's wonderful painting.  I think the hero spends
about twenty pages wandering around the Uffizi, so it could pass as an art
history book. It's pretty sophisticated for High School kids, although my
husband and college aged son loved it.

The Flanders Panel is a great mystery that mixes chess with art.  Uses a
medieval painting as the focus.

I don't know how historically acurate it is, but Judith Merkle Riley has an
engrossing historical novel _The Serpent Garden_ about portrait painting in
Elizabethan England.

--
Roz Goodman, Media Specialist
Southwest Region Schools
PO Box 90
Dillingham, AK 99576
907-842-5287 (work) 842-5428 (FAX)
bsrlg@aurora.alaska.edu

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