If you’ve already discovered your creative self, you probably already know what materials you like to work with: paper, fabric, paint, or yarn, for example. Augusta Savage knew at an early age what she liked to work with: the “soft, gooey, just-waiting-to-be-shaped-into-something clay” that she found in a pit behind her house in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Animal shapes would fairly spring fully formed from her little hands. Her daddy, however, was not happy to be seeing his daughter playing in the mud.
Being a minister, he thought she’d be better off reading the Bible. When she told him as much, she got a spanking she wouldn’t forget, because her daddy thought clay images weren’t Christian. Augusta Savage was destined to have to struggle to show her sculpture to the world. This picture biography captures Savage’s drive to get her hands on clay, to find teachers willing to instruct her, and the programs in New York City that helped her rise to distinction among important artists of other genres in the Harlem Renaissance. She eventually became the director of the Harlem Community Arts Center where she found fulfillment in teaching youngsters and helping them to find the artist within.
Author Schroeder is careful to point out in his foreword that not much is documented about Ms. Savage, so he had to weave together the facts he could glean about this enigmatic artist to create the fabric of a story about her early life. An afterword gives more adult information about Savage’s career and later life. First-time children’s illustrator JaeMe Bereal chose soft shapes and a diffuse line to bring young readers Ms. Savage’s world. Her amazing use of acrylics is both bold and delicate, perfectly capturing the author’s attempt to flesh out a world built from many unknowns.
Welcome back to life, Augusta Savage; may all who meet you in this book be inspired to go forth and create.
Recommended by: Shari Savage, Librarian, Michigan, USA
