Charlie Russell: Tale-Telling Cowboy Artist

by Lois Harris

Overview

As a boy, Charlie Russell shaped small clay figures and drew pictures. He would one day become known as the Cowboy Artist. In this picture-book biography, young readers will discover the tales of the Old West that his much-admired art and writings tell. As a young boy in the 1870s, Charlie Russell had two passions: art and the West. When he was just fifteen, he established himself as a ranch hand in Montana Territory, where he was able to draw upon his surroundings to develop his artistic gifts. Soon, he was living the life he had always imagined. Twenty-three samples of the artist's paintings and sculptures illustrate this biography, a story that traces Russell's life from young man to cowboy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589807587
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	01/21/2010
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,124,269
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lois V. Harris's fiction, nonfiction, and photography have appeared in children's magazines and the L.A. Times. The author of Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter and Charlie Russell: Tale-Telling Cowboy Artist, Harris is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the Authors Guild, the University of Washington Alumni Association, and the Seattle Art Museum. She lives with her family and two cats in Anacortes, Washington, and enjoys visiting museums and learning about art.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 2–4—Russell, the great Western painter and sculptor, set out from Missouri for the Montana Territory in 1879, when he was 15. The free-spirited teen, given to skipping school, grew into an adventurous young man who was eager to capture what he saw in his art. Russell was also a good storyteller, and eventually his tales were published in magazines. This picture-book biography follows the design of Harris's Mary Cassatt: Impressionist Painter (Pelican, 2007), noting facts in short paragraphs paired with photographs and Russell's artwork. While the pieces are not presented in chronological order, they are representative of his body of work. Details are listed in the back of the book, but dimensions are omitted. This is an attractive catalog, but for an appealing read-aloud biography try Jeanette Winter's Cowboy Charlie (Houghton, 1995).—Lisa Glasscock, Columbine Public Library, Littleton, CO

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