On My Block

Stories and Paintings by Fifteen Artists
By Dana Goldberg, Cecilia Álvarez, Carl Angel, Cbabi Bayoc

    Fifteen fine artists portray, in words and pictures, the places and spaces most special to them.

    Description

    Is there a corner of your block that you love to explore? A room in your house that holds a special memory? A piece of your home country that you particularly miss? A faraway place you’ve only heard about from an elder family member that excites your imagination?

    Children’s Book Press asked fifteen gifted fine artists to portray, in words and pictures, the places and spaces most special to them, and On My Block is the remarkable result. The places these visual artists have chosen to represent are moving, funny, and unexpected. Readers will soar from the rooftops of South Brooklyn to the adobe-colored desert of Taos Pueblo, from a basement in San Francisco’s Japantown to a Mississippi Gulf Coast porch. A garden in Mexico overflows with blossoms while another in Tehran hums with the purring of thirty-two cats, and an empty lot in a bustling Havana neighborhood is transformed into a country farm.

    On My Block is a celebration of community, an homage to neighborhoods across the world, and an exploration of past and present. The fifteen gorgeous paintings and stories ask you to ponder the places that comprise your world. What’s on your block, down your street, in another country, that makes up who you are?

    Contributors:
    Kim Cogan
    Maya Christina Gonzalez
    Yasmin Hernandez
    Felicia Hoshina
    Sara Kahn
    Conan Low
    Joseph Pearson
    Elaine Pedlar
    Ann Phong
    José Ramírez
    Tonel
    Jonathan Warm Day

    About the Creators

    Dana Goldberg
    Dana Goldberg

    Dana Goldberg is a Bay Area–based writer and editor who published award-winning multicultural and bilingual picture books as Executive Editor of Children’s Book Press from 2005–2011. Since then, she’s been a resident wordsmith at the SFMOMA and the Exploratorium, a hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception. She co-authored The Art of Curiosity: 50 Visionary Artists, Scientists, Poets, Makers, & Dreamers Who Are Changing the Way We See Our World (Weldon Owen, 2019).

    Cecilia Álvarez

    Cecilia Álvarez is a gifted fine artist. The daughter of a Mexican mother and a Cuban father, her artwork has been exhibited internationally and featured in a range of publications. Over the past decade, she has focused her creative energies on works of public art. Cecilia has two children and lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband.

    Carl Angel

    Carl Angel is a visual artist who enjoys participating in the creation of narrative media--whether it is illustration, design, or independent films. He has illustrated, designed, and art directed numerous books for young readers, including Lakas and the Manilatown Fish, Willie Wins, and Xochitl and the Flowers / Xóchitl, la Niña de las Flores, among others. He lives with his wife and son in Burbank, California. Visit his site at carlangel.com

    Cbabi Bayoc
    Cbabi Bayoc

    Cbabi Bayoc is a fine artist and illustrator whose artwork reflects his love of music and family. His paintings can be found in galleries and homes around the world. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and children.

    Reviews

    • "This is a loving, wonderfully illustrated homage to the neighborhood of place, family, heart and mind."

      - Kirkus Reviews
    • "Kids may be inspired to look at their own surroundings in a new light."

      - Publishers Weekly

    Paperback

  • ISBN 9780892392407
  • Publication Date Apr 01, 2013
  • Trim Size 10.5 × 8.5 in
  • Weight 0.375 lbs
  • Page Count 32
  • Interests

  • Audience Children
  • BISAC Category 1 JUV / People & Places / United States / General
  • BISAC Category 2 JUV / Diversity & Multicultural
  • BISAC Category 3 JUV / Social Themes / Emigration & Immigration
  • Themes Art, Biography / Memoir, Childhood Experiences and Memories, Cultural Diversity, Dreams & Aspirations, Environment / Nature, Families, Friendship, Grandparents, Gratitude, Holidays / Traditions, Home, Identity / Self Esteem / Confidence, Imagination, Informational / Expository Nonfiction, Multiple Ethnicities Represented, Neighbors, Nonfiction
  • Reading Levels

  • Age Range Ages 7 - 11
  • Grade Range Grades 2 - 6
  • Guided Reading S
  • DRA 40
  • Interest Level Grades 2 - 6
  • Reading Level Grades 4 - 5
  • Bebop Reading Fluent
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