Waaay back in January 2014, I saw this book. Hadley Hooper’s art blew me away. It still does. (And here Joanna Rudge Long reviews it for The Horn Book.)

Henri Matisse is presented as a youngster, growing up in a dreary gray town. His mother introduces color to his life as she paints plates, arranges fruit and flowers, hangs locally made rugs on the walls, and allows her little boy to raise pigeons, with their iridescent colors.

The text consists solely of two conditional questions (one very, very long), starting with the words, “If you were a boy named Henri Matisse...” (More on that later.)

The star here is the art. My goodness, it is stunning. A combination of relief printmaking and digital art, the art feels homemade and warm and heartfelt as we learn all that went into helping the boy Henri become the artist Henri Matisse. The opening spread is all blue-gray and straight lines. Even young Henri seems to be marching in time through the "dreary town in northern France." But the moment his mother starts painting, Henri’s world begins to come to life. The blank white walls are now dotted with gorgeous painted plates, and Henri revels in the joy of mixing paints for his mother. Color comes into his life and into the town, and each page turn brings new colors and new experiences of that color. Henri is always at the heart of the story, taking it all in. Later in the story, when the grownup artist arrives on the right side of a ladder (and his little boy self is on the left), his art is shown to be a direct result of all his mother introduced him to as a child (plants, fruit, pigeons, light, movement).

It’s all delicious. I love it.

My only little concern is the text. That long, long first conditional sentence is a lot to hold onto for the young reader. My class loved the art and wanted to read more about Matisse. (I had two of the books from MacLachlan’s bibliography in my room.) However, they were a bit confused when they tried to read it themselves or follow the story when I read it. Perhaps it’s for an older audience? Or perhaps some child readers need an adult to tell a bit more? (Which is just fine.) My adult book club friends read this aloud and it was poetic and calming, especially the penultimate wordless spread that leads to "And the iridescence of birds?"

Here is what the Caldecott manual says about text: “Each book is to be considered as a picture book. The committee is to make its decision primarily on the illustration, but other components of a book are to be considered especially when they make a book less effective as a children’s picture book. Such other components might include the written text, the overall design of the book, etc.”

I do not think the text is weak at all. I don't even think that the text makes it less effective as a children's picture book. It's just a bit of a challenge for very young readers. That's all. Have any of you read this with children? If so, how old? And how did it work?

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But back to the art. The Art. The art is magnificent. And I appreciate that gentle art more each time I look at it.

The end notes from both the author and the illustrator added a lot to my understanding of Matisse's story and how the art for this book was created. I, like my students, wanted to know more — more about this French mill town, more about Matisse's mother, and more about the beautiful word iridescence. When a book makes you want to know more, that's always a very good thing.