illustrated by Gael Abary, published by Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2024
“So you want to ride a horse?.... All you have to do, advises this lovely book that proceeds at the rhythm of a gentle trot, is close your eyes…. Readers who were already lovers of these gorgeous, wonderful creatures will find their fancies galloping away in delight. Others may well become instant equine converts…. Horse lovers, take note: This is a sweet, tender book to ride off into the sunset with.—Kirkus Reviews
“This love letter to horseback riding offers warm encouragement, even to readers who may not have access to horses…. In this passionate introduction to riding, the creators make no apologies for being besotted with horses: “What? Is your heart a wild horse, too?/ A secret: the scent of a barn is a balm.”—Publishers Weekly
“As in her admiring biographies of unconventional women…Novesky’s fanciful lyricism teeters on the right side of informed infatuation and continues her trend of crafting adventurous protagonists. Abary’s mixed-media illustrations gorgeously meld the text’s specific details with romantic possibility…. A terrific addition to all collections and an absolute must for equine enthusiasts.”—Booklist, Starred Review
“The dreamlike nature of this gentle…picture book allows expansion…. The speckled mixed-media illustrations in muted tones of rose, peach, and champagne extend the imaginative atmosphere…transporting the reader, by book’s end, to a deserted beach where horse and rider can run in untrammeled freedom…. ‘Heels down, eyes, up, smile. Yes, beam. You are sitting atop a dream.’”—Horn Book Magazine
"A delightful exploration of a child’s imaginative journey into the world of horses. Through its engaging narrative and soft, muted illustrations, the book captures the essence of what it means to dream about riding and caring for these magnificent animals. The text is thoughtfully crafted... [and] effectively balances storytelling with factual information.... What sets this book apart is its interactive approach. The author poses questions that encourage readers to imagine their perfect horse and what it would be like to ride. This technique fosters creativity and engagement, making the reading experience dynamic and personal. A charming and informative book that will resonate with young horse enthusiasts."—SLJ
“Probably the most factual horse picture book couched in a sweet little fictional story you’ll encounter for a decade or two.”—Betsy Bird, SLJ, 31 Days, 31 Lists: 2024
*A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
*Selected for The Original Art 2024, An Exhibition of Children's Book Illustration, The Society of Illustrators, New York, NY
*2024 SLJ “The Undies Case Cover Awards” winner, for the gorgeous silhouette case, featured on homepage.
*"How to Read a Horse" Unleashing Readers
*The Picture Book Buzz interview
Text © 2024 Amy Novesky * Illustrations © 2024 Gael Abary
Illustrated by Julie Morstad * Published by Viking Books for Young Readers, 2020
J'ai envie que le monde soit beau, et il est beau. J'ai envie que les gens soient bons, et ils sont bons./I want the world to be beautiful, and it is beautiful. I want people to be good, and they are good. —Anne-France Dautheville
“The adventurous spirit of Anne-France Dautheville is distilled in this arresting ode to her life. It begins in Paris, 1973, with “a girl” gripped by wanderlust and a wish to write about the world, so she packs her motorcycle’s saddlebags—the detailed spread of their contents, from lipstick to pliers, is a treat—and she hits the road. Wonder, awe, and bravery are paramount in her ensuing travels, which include visits to Canada, Afghanistan, India, and Turkey. In fact, she becomes the first woman to travel around the world on a motorcycle. Powerfully understated, the story reveals Dautheville as a girl who can. A girl unafraid of hard work or of taking a fall. She defies conventions and gender norms through her choices, namely showing the world what a girl is capable of. These acts are spectacularly framed in Morstad’s illustrations, which favor dark pencil-and-ink drawings on saturated backdrops ranging from ocher to orchid, periwinkle to peach. Her spreads of Dautheville beneath the northern lights and later in silhouette aboard a train traveling at sunset are particular showstoppers. On more subtle display is the goodness Dautheville finds in people everywhere she travels, effectively demonstrating the beauty of cultures different from our own.” —Booklist, starred review
“This eminently sharable title arrives as soothing balm, stirring reminders of the world beyond household walls and offering images onto which each can attach a personal dream: Where is my ‘Elsewhere’? Whom would I meet? What would I see?” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review
https://bccb.ischool.illinois.edu/featured/big-picture/
“[T]his poetic journey . . . is likely to touch something profound in . . . those who hear the siren call of travel.” —School Library Journal
“A poetic, visually stunning depiction of a young woman’s travels via motorcycle.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Novesky’s lyrical text, full of lush sensory detail, emphasizes the character’s wonder but also her determination: ‘She falls often...But she always gets back up.’ . . . [A] lovely tribute to both the pioneering motorcyclist and the joys of the open road. —Horn Book Magazine
*A Junior Library Guild selection
*2021 Society of Illustrators Original Art Exhibit
*New York Public Library, Best Books of 2020
*SLJ/Betsy Bird’s 31 Days, 31 Lists: 2020 Unique Biographies
*2021 Kids’ Book Choice Awards Finalist, Best Book of the Year
*Translated into 8 languages! French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, and Polish editions
*A Sélection 8e Prix Nénuphar de l'album jeunesse: a prize whose jury is composed of thousands of students in France. La fille à moto is one of 5 books to be considered in the 2021-2022 school year.
Books that Double As Self-Help
Interview with AFD: “This book is music, poetry, a dream and true.” — Anne-France Dautheville
Text © 2020 Amy Novesky * Illustrations © 2020 Julie Morstad *Photos © Collection Dautheville
illustrated by Lisel Ashlock, published by Creative Editions
“Egg-quisite” —Kirkus Reviews
“Locating a perfect, unbroken shell is one of life’s small delights, and this board book shares that sense of wonder.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Simple, delightful rhymes and exquisite illustrations” —The Wall Street Journal
“Highly recommended . . . This board book will spark curiosity in children and adults, too.” —School Library Journal
*A CCBC Choices 2021 (Egg)
Illustrations © Lisel Ashlock
A Story of the Seasons Sylvia Plath Kept Bees
illustrated by Jessica Love, published by Viking Children’s Books Books, 2025
In narrative verse organized from “Spring” to “Winter,” Novesky explores Sylvia Plath’s beekeeping in the year preceding the poet’s death. As she mentions in a note, Novesky—herself a poet and beekeeper—takes inspiration from Plath’s letters and poetry, including several bee-focused poems that conclude the posthumously published collection Ariel. (As Novesky explains, she draws from the revised edition that aligns with Plath’s own intended order of the poems, rather than her husband Ted Hughes’ arrangement.) In “Spring,” Plath’s sleeveless dress and palpable fear during her introduction to her bees derive from her poem “The Bee Meeting.” Novesky’s often-exquisite verse intentionally echoes Plath’s language, including thrice-repeated words and phrases. Lines in “Summer” reveal the necessity of Plath’s early-morning writing: “In the blue hour, her hour, / the poet writes / until the babies wake / just past dawn. / She writes like mad, / a poem, a poem, a poem.” Italicized phrases and lines are pulled directly from Plath’s own writing, a fact Novesky doesn’t specifically acknowledge. Love’s muted watercolor-and-ink illustrations imbue the book with a fitting poignancy, contrasting practical details—such as the poet caring for her hive or her children—with tender images of flowers, seasonal changes, bees, and jarred honey. The opening and closing illustrations depict snowdrops, completing the seasonal cycle. Novesky successfully refocuses the lens from Plath’s tragic death to the poet as artist, centering her hopeful ambition and keen relationship with nature. Attentive, deeply respectful, lovely.—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
In the first of this collection of poems, Novesky compares the brief life and enduring work of bees with those of beekeeper and poet Sylvia Plath (1932-1063): “Love, bees don’t live long…/ But honey lives forever. Words, too.” Four delicate, understated poems follow, one for each season. Romantic, flower-sprigged watercolors depict Plath’s face close-up as she studies the hive in “Spring.” In “Summer,” Plath writes “in the blue hour” before her children awake, navigates domestic matters, then checks the bees; Love paints her defeated, head bowed in arms, covered with red welts. But in “Fall,” she is publishing poems and standing amid the bees’ swarm. In “Winter,” she lines up jars of honey and dreams of the future, writing “one last bee poem… The last word—spring.” Plath’s death by suicide isn’t mentioned; instead, the work leaves behind a sense of her solitude, competing demands on her time, and the way both hive and poet navigate seasonal change. More about the subject concludes.—Publishers Weekly
“Novesky provides a snapshot of Plath (1932–1963) inspired by her poems and letters about her brief experience with beekeeping. The text moves through the seasons, beginning and ending with spring, in spare, graceful free-verse poems with hints of rhyme and steady internal rhythm and occasionally incorporating (in italics) Plath’s own words and phrases: “It is the golden season. / Everything glowing as if lit from within. / The poet can glow and burn, / as if lit from within, too.” Practical details about beekeeping are integrated, such as proper garb, how to check a hive and frame, getting stung, pollination, and the production of honey. Love’s watercolor illustrations depict Plath (and her braided “crown” of hair) caring for bees and writing poetry as well as the landscape, flowers, and vegetation and many bees up close and in swirls and swarms. The tension between Plath’s melancholic moods and lyrical poetry and the hopeful, careful process of beekeeping is captured beautifully here. In the endnote, Novesky provides a brief biographical sketch of Plath and explains her motivation for this story: she wanted readers (who may here be encountering Plath for the first time) to know that the poet was “so much more than her legendary death.”—The Horn Book Review
Text © 2025 Amy Novesky * Illustrations © 2025 Jessica Love
The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois
Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault Abrams Books for Young Readers
"One of the loveliest books I've encountered." —The New York Times
"Unbelievably beautiful and poetic." —Brain Pickings
"Novesky returns to territory in which she shines—picture-book biographies of influential and strong-willed female artists with this exquisite portrait of modern artist Louise Bourgeois. . . . [A] spare yet lilting narrative that leaves an arresting impression." —Horn Book Magazine, Starred Review
"Splendid visual and verbal introduction to little-known Louise Bourgeois." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"With evocative, gorgeous illustrations and an inspirational story of an artist not often covered in children's literature, this arresting volume is an excellent addition to nonfiction picture book collections, particularly those lacking titles about women artists." —Booklist, Starred Review
"An inventive introduction to the work of a celebrated artist and a useful mentor text for exploring how language and imaginative, varied illustrations can work together to convey an idea." —School Library Journal
"Poetic and experimental, the text and art capture the delicate, powerful quality of Bourgeois's work across multiple media, as well as her ideas about order, symmetry, memory, and reparation." —Publishers Weekly
“Possibly one of the most ambitious and lush picture books I have ever encountered, this book engages all of the five senses in a reading synesthesia that ignites the whole body, firing the right and left sides of the brain and every chamber of the heart.” — J.M. Farkas, Electric Lit
*Winner of the Bologna Ragazzi Award for Art, 2017
*Brainpickings, The Best Children's Books of 2016
*SLJ/Elizabeth Bird's 100 Magnificent Children's Books, 2016
*SLJ/Elizabeth Bird's 2016 Calde-Nots
"If I could, I'd give Cloth Lullaby all the awards in the world." —Elizabeth Bird
*A Junior Library Guild selection
*Seven foreign language editions
*How Children Change the Way We See—The New Yorker
*Five Books Asia Art Archive Co-founder Couldn’t Live Without—South China Morning Post
*Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Text © 2016 Amy Novesky * Illustrations © 2016 Isabelle Arsenault
"She drew, she painted, she wove. She missed her mother so much, she sculpted giant spiders made of bronze, steel, and marble she named Maman. Her mother was not unlike a spider, a repairer of broken things.
If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn't get mad. She weaves and repairs it."
Cloth Lullaby reading: https://vimeo.com/406040911
Text © 2016 Amy Novesky * Illustration © 2016 Isabelle Arsenault
Louise Bourgeois with Spider IV 1996 (Detail). Portrait: © Peter Sumner Walton Bellamy/Art: © The Easton Foundation
Louise Bourgeois, Spider, 2003, steel and tapestry, 19x23x25; Photo: Christoper Burke, © The Easton Foundation
illustrated by Sara Gillingham, Cameron Kids/ABRAMS
"Love IS a truck...And this book is right on the money." —Elizabeth Bird, Fuse 8 Production
"This honey of a title conveys the simple joy of creative play." —School Library Journal, Starred review
“The enchanting words and winsome illustrations in this unique clothbound book are an absolute treat and are perfect for the little dancer in your life.” —Michelle Sterling, Avery & Augustine
*Amazon Editor’s Pick
*Amazon Best of the Month
*SLJ/Elizabeth Bird's 100 Magnificent Children's Books, 2016
*SLJ/Elizabeth Bird's 2016 Calde-Nots/Great Board Books
*Society of Illustrators, The Original Art Exhibit, 2016
Love Is a Tutu/Truck reading: https://vimeo.com/408662495
Illustrations © Sara Gillingham
Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton * Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
“This introduction to the jazz great has tons of kid appeal." —School Library Journal
"True to Billie Holiday's life and music, the rhythmic free verse and bright pictures mix joy and melancholy in this picture-book introduction to the great blues singer, known as Lady Day." —Booklist
"Both text and art capture the sweet bond between Holiday and her beloved animals." —Publishers Weekly
"By highlighting Lady Day's affectionate relationship with Mister, Novesky and Newton invite readers to admire the illustrious singer in a sparkling new light." —Kirkus Reviews
"Both the dramatic farewell and the blissful reunion, as Mister greets Holiday on the train platform upon her return, capture with elegant simplicity the heart of the story — the deep, unconditional love between Lady Day and Mister." —Brain Pickings
The Best Books About Billie Holiday —Rolling Stone
Review and Teacher's Guide by Alisha White
Text © Amy Novesky * Illustrations © Vanessa Brantley Newton * Photo © William P. Gottlieb
illustrated by Brittney Lee, published by Disney Press, 2019
“Golden yellow, ochre. Jade green and royal purple. Hot pink and red rose madder. She painted an iris sky. An emerald world. A fuchsia sea. A turquoise moon.”
Photograph © The Estate of Mary Blair
Text © 2019 Amy Novesky * Illustrations © 2019 Brittney Lee
Illustrated by Yuyi Morales * Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
"A rich and unexpected depiction of a treasured artist." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"[A] lush, carefully researched book. Cool, green rainforest settings contrast with brilliant, fuchsia skies in which the protagonist is framed by larger-than-life philodendron, hibiscus, and plumeria." —School Library Journal
"An appealing and slightly humorous portrayal of O'Keeffe's artistic vision and determination, along with a peek at the Hawaii of over a century ago. Accessible, unfussy and visually charming." —Kirkus Reviews
*Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, Honor Book
*Best Children's Books of 2012, Kirkus Reviews
*Star of the North Book Award Nominee
*A Junior Library Guild Selection
Text © 2012 Amy Novesky * Illustrations © 2012 Yuyi Morales
Roots and Wings: How Shahzia Sikander Became an Artist, by Shahzia Sikander & Amy Novesky, illustrated by Hannah Barczyk, published by The Museum of Modern Art
“In Roots and Wings, written in collaboration with Amy Novesky, [Sikander] relates the story of her lively early years. She climbs trees, beats boys at cricket, trains pigeons with her cousins. Her big home is filled with books from all over the world and she watches Bollywood movies as well as American westerns. She travels with her family to Rome, where she is charmed by the Sistine Chapel. In the book’s most childlike line (my favorite), she tells us, ‘Michelangelo and I share a birthday.’ We see her paint, first by herself at home and later in art school with the guidance of a miniature-painting master. ‘Art is my ritual, my ticket to new worlds’ is the earnest clue to a dramatic and effective scene change; on the next page we see her on the streets of New York, ready to begin her life as an artist, far from home.”—The New York Times
“A Pakistani American pens a self-portrait of a budding artist. Raised in Lahore, Pakistan, Sikander enumerates formative influences, starting with the warmth of her multigenerational home, and continuing with ancient fables; Russian fairy tales; poetry in English and Urdu; Bollywood films and Westerns; city sights, scents and songs; and traditional miniature paintings that will inspire her work. What fun to read about a family car trip to Rome. What fun to read about her success as both a mathematician and an artist in school.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“How a Children’s Book About Art Took Flight” The Museum of Modern Art Magazine
The Museum of Modern Art Talks, Shahzia Sikander
*2021 Society of Illustrators Original Art Exhibit
*31 Days, 31 Posts: 2021 Autobiographies for Kids!
© 2021 The Museum of Modern Art * Art © 2021 Shahzia Sikander
Illustrated by Lisa Congdon * Cameron + Company
"And for one hour every afternoon, while the boys napped, Imogen focused on her flowers, including a common magnolia blossom she shot close up…. Then, under the soft glow of a red bulb, her five-year-old son beside her, Imogen watched as the images she'd captured—her boys, her blossoms—slowly emerged on paper. She knew she had something special.
Her magnolia, with its luminous petals and jeweled stamen, was magnificent."
"Striking a tone of quiet intimacy, Novesky follows Georgia in Hawaii and Me, Frida with another tribute to a female 20th century artist." —Publishers Weekly
"Novesky has a special knack for conveying an artist's life and craft in simple prose; through spare text she captures how Cunningham 'found a little beauty in everything.'" —Horn Book Magazine
Text © 2012 Amy Novesky * Illustration © 2012 Lisa Congdon * Self-Portrait with My Children, early 1920s © Imogen Cunningham Trust 2012
Illustrated by David Diaz * Abrams Books for Young Readers
*Pura Belpre Honor Book
*FOCAL Award, Los Angeles Public Library
*Best Picture Book, International Latino Book Award
*Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) Choices
*SCIBA Book Award Finalist, Children's Picture Book
*ALA Notable Book
*Me, Frida Portfolio, by David Diaz
"A lushly painted picture book about the artist Frida Kahlo during her time in San Francisco with her husband, Diego Rivera." —Booklist
"[Kahlo's] explorations of the city and surrounding area are lovingly detailed." —San Francisco Chronicle
Frida (Frieda) Kahlo. Frieda and Diego Rivera, 1931. Oil on canvas. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Albert M. Bender Collection. © Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Text © 2010 Amy Novesky * Illustrations © 2010 David Diaz
