Looks at the life of the artist Benny Andrews illustrated with his original paintings, from his childhood and youth in rural Georgia, through his studies in Chicago and his activism and artistic success in New York City. - (Baker & Taylor)

Sumptuously illustrated with the artist's own work, a tribute to the life and achievements of Benny Andrews details his rise from the poverty and social injustices of his family's sharecropper origins to become a groundbreaking artist, activist and teacher. Simultaneous eBook. 10,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

Benny Andrews loved to draw. He drew his nine brothers and sisters, and his parents. He drew the red earth of the fields where they all worked, the hot sun that beat down, and the rows and rows of crops. As Benny hauled buckets of water, he made pictures in his head. And he dreamed of a better life—something beyond the segregation, the backbreaking labor, and the limited opportunities of his world.      Benny’s dreams took him far from the rural Georgia of his childhood. He became one of the most important African American painters of the twentieth century, and he opened doors for other artists of color. His story will inspire budding young artists to work hard and follow their dreams.
      - (HARPERCOLL)

Booklist Reviews

Born in Plainview, Georgia, in 1930, African American artist Benny Andrews started to draw when he was three years old and never stopped. This picture-book biography describes the determined and successful life of Andrews, born to parents who worked multiple jobs to keep their 10 children fed. While his classmates went to work the cotton fields, he dreamed of leaving. With help—and a three-mile walk to school—Andrews finished his education and eventually enrolled in art school in Chicago. Throughout his life, his art focused on the people around him, from Chicago's jazz musicians to New York's civil rights activists. He also became an art teacher, fighting for equal rights for African Americans and espousing that "art is for everyone," whether they are prison inmates or children recovering from Hurricane Katrina. There's no better illustrator for this narrative than Andrews himself. His folk art style features paint and fabric collages with elongated forms and tactile brushstrokes. Photographs, an author's note, and a detailed time line offer more information on this influential American artist. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Born in 1930 in Georgia, Andrews defied social expectations by leaving the farm, attending high school, earning a BFA degree, and becoming a renowned painter in an art world still unwelcoming to artists of color. Benson expertly crafts the narrative around original Andrews paintings, notable for their focus on autobiographical elements and experiences of prejudice as well as for the expressionistic stylization of figures. Timeline. Bib.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

Benson opens in New Orleans in 2005, where Benny Andrews traveled after Hurricane Katrina to teach children "to use art to express their feelings about what they had been through...he knew that sometimes it was easier to tell a story with pictures than with words." And this is an excellent way to begin a biography of an artist dedicated to the craft of narrative- and experience-based art, and also to the ongoing social concerns of African Americans and other minority groups. Then it's back to 1933 Plainview, Georgia, where three-year-old Benny drew his first picture. In clear prose, Benson moves through the years, during which Andrews defied social expectations by leaving the farm, attending high school, earning a bachelor of fine arts degree, and eventually becoming a renowned painter in an art world that was still unwelcoming to artists of color. The narrative is expertly crafted around original Andrews paintings (identified in the back matter), which are notable for their focus on autobiographical elements and people's experiences of prejudice as well as for the expressionistic stylization of figures: elongated subjects work in a field, attend church, dance at a jazz club, sell newspapers in Harlem. Appended are an author's note, sources and resources, and an ultra-detailed timeline that makes clear the breadth and heft of Andrews's accomplishments. katrina hedee Copyright 2014 Horn Book Magazine.

Kirkus Reviews

African-American artist and arts activist Andrews was an outsider by birth and politics but not an outsider, or self-taught artist. Driven by an early passion for drawing and a desperate Depression-era childhood in Plainview, Georgia, Andrews attended college on a 4-H scholarship, served in the Air Force and earned a BFA from the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago. A black man on the GI Bill, Andrews had never even visited a museum until he went to art school. His paintings celebrated narrative; he painted the geography and the lives of black folks in the Jim Crow South and the striving, struggling inner cities of the North. Author Benson, her late husband, Jim Haskins, and Andrews (who died in 2006) collaborated on several projects celebrating African-American history and achievement, including John Lewis in the Lead (2006); her passion for her subject shines clearly in the text, brief though it is. She introduces readers to young Benny, who grows up surrounded by cotton f ields, finds inspiration in the church and continues with his education even as his classmates drop out to work cotton full-time. She closes with his activism on behalf of "outsider" artists: "He believed that art was for everyone." This singular biography refocuses attention on the struggle for social justice through the extraordinary visions of this singular painter—every illustration is the artist's own. Indelible. (Picture book/biography. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus 2014 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Artist Andrews's own striking paintings illustrate the story of his life and work, eloquently told by Benson. With an often difficult childhood spent working in cotton fields, Andrews found inspiration for his childhood drawings from workers in the field, "church ladies' hats and the preacher's Bible stories," comics, and movies. Andrews's eventual departure from Georgia—first through the Air Force, then to art school in Chicago—led to a broadening of his subject matter and style. In New York City, his artwork increasingly reflected his social conscience: he painted Harlem residents, living at the advent of the civil rights movement. His images blend whimsical elements—tree leaves resemble globular mosaic glasswork in one scene—with stark depictions of struggle, emphasizing his efforts to find intersections between creativity and social justice. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 4–6—Benny Andrews began drawing when he was able to hold pencil in his hands and "once he started, he never stopped." He was born in 1930, one of 10 children to sharecroppers, and attended high school at a time when few of his friends had similar opportunities. After the service and college, Andrews went to New York City, where his work began to blossom: in scenes of Harlem life, the jazz world, and of his Georgia childhood. Social causes and injustice, particularly the civil rights movement and the exclusion of African American and female artists from museums fueled both his art and activism. Thick with broad, vibrant swatches of greens, blues, and reds and incorporating collage elements, the artist's folklike paintings depicted the world around him—and illustrate Benson's moving and accessible picture book biography. Whether two or three dimensional, existing on a shallow stage or in an expansive landscape, Andrews's often elongated, stylized figures carry weight and their postures tell stories of oppression, of joy, of curiosity, and of pride. Readers will recognize the artist as the illustrator of Jim Haskins's John Lewis in the Lead (Lee & Low, 2006), Delivering Justice (Candlewick, 2005), and Langston Hughes (Sterling, 2006). His poignant portrayals of the human condition in these and other titles and in paintings hanging on museum walls long ago earned him the title he chose for himself: the "people's painter." A powerful work about an influential artist and activist.—Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal