Poetry: The Sky Painter: Louis Fuertes, Bird Artist

The Sky Painter: Louis Fuertes, Bird Artist
By Margarita Engle
Illustrated Aliona Bereghici

Engle, Margarita, and Aliona Bereghici. The Sky Painter: Louis Fuertes, Bird Artist. New York, NY: Two Lions, 2015. 9781477826331

Plot Summary

Explore the life of Louis Fuertes through expressive poems and highly detailed watercolor and ink illustrations. From his perspective, Louis explains how he fell in love with birds and wanted to help them live, caring for injured birds under his front porch and in his kitchen. His father wanted him to be an engineer but he wanted to become a bird artist. After deciding that he no longer wanted to hunt and kill the birds in order to paint them, Louis learned to paint them quickly and captured their free spirits in nature. He visited places like Alaska, the Caribbean, and South America to study the many birds he sees. Museums asked for his art, and he was able to share his love of nature with millions of people all over the world.

Analysis

Margarita Engle and Aliona Bereghici have blended poetry with words to create a seamless biography of Louis Fuertes's life in a bite-size book that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. Engle wrote the poems from Louis's perspective, giving each poem a feeling of authenticity. The poems are in chronological order and Bereghici illustrated Louis growing as the book progresses. This book of poetry relies heavily on figurative language. One example of this figurative language is "the narrow pencil in my hand/ feels as wide and free/ as a wing/ in wild sky." from the poem Bird Art. If the poems were read alone, without the aid of illustrations, readers would have a clear picture of the way that Louis viewed the world around him. Each poem is thought-provoking and inspiring. Readers will finish and find themselves wanting to sketch or draw the birds that they see.

Bereghici's illustrations are so full of detail that readers will want to study each page before flipping to the next one. The combination of watercolor and ink allowed her to give each bird a texture on their wings and expressions in their eyes. She has included small banners on each page that identify the places and birds that Engle describes in each poem. Bereghici has captured the warmth of Louis's life and his strong connection to nature.

Excerpt

SOUTH AMERICA

Howler monkeys join in,

whooping and roaring, while

my bird friends and I chuckle,

peep, croak, whistle, and shriek,

making our wild voices

rise up and soar!

Connections

After reading this book, ask children to pick their favorite birds from the illustrations. Ask them what they like about each bird and encourage them to be as expressive as Engle was in her poems. Give them a piece of paper and ask them to draw their favorite birds while you read through the book a second time. After you finish reading, see how far they were able to get in their drawings. This will let them see how difficult it was for Louis to draw the birds without hunting them first. After they share how far they got in their drawings, allow them to finish and share their creations.

Reviews

Maggie Chase with the School Library Journal stated "Bereghici's stunning watercolor and ink spreads practically fly off the page with their richly colored, realistic depictions of Fuertes's environment and experiences . . . The text is minimal, but Engle has selected strong, descriptive words to tell this story."

Chase, Maggie. 2015. “The Sky Painter: Louis Fuertes, Bird Artist.” School Library Journal 61 (5): 132. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.twu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brd&AN=102364428&site=ehost-live.

A writer for the Publishers Weekly wrote, "While Bereghici’s watercolor-and-ink art offers realistically detailed images of the birds Fuertes loves, whimsical moments are present, too, as when Fuertes he dives underwater to observe ducks (“I plunge into a lake and look up/ from below, studying their funny tails/ and their paddling/ webbed feet”). Engle’s quiet verse portrays Fuertes as a quietly impassioned individual most at home in the presence of animals or sharing his love for them."

“The Sky Painter: Louis Fuertes, Bird Artist.” 2015. Publishers Weekly 262 (17): 74. https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.twu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=brd&AN=102363794&site=ehost-live.