Some Writer!

I love Melissa Sweet's writing, but it's the illustrations she makes to accompany her text that wows me. Sweet's technique is unique; she uses a collage of real objects. Her art almost has a 3-D effect.

Great writing.
Knock-your-socks-off illustrations.
And E. B. White.

It's to die for.

Wow. This made me cry, so I'm a little upset about that. I hate to cry.
I have to say that I don't read many children's level biographies, in fact, with
the exception of my beloved Who Was? biographies, I don't think I think I have read any.
So there is that.
I said to myself multiple times while reading this,”Am I finding this art adds to the story or is is distracting me?” The answer to that was”yes”. Some of it enhanced, some of it distracted me from what the words were trying to tell me and some of it was page filler.

It also loses a star because it is too sweet. There are zero bad times in this entire story and E.B. White lived through some turbulent times and I don't buy it. I felt like I was being sold on an idea of who E.B. White, the writer, was. A brand, if you must. I felt like I was being sold a legend of E.B. White that is on par with the legend of Betty Crocker and Uncle Ben.
This is ironic because E.B. White was not above putting death and sadness into his stories. They are missing from his.

I realize I am not the intended audience for this book. Does it speak to a child? Is that what the final chapters about simplifying one's writing and the Elements of Style are doing? Teaching future writers? Maybe.
I'm being harsh, I think, because I was made to cry. It was the quote about hope, at the end of this book that made me cry. I was holding it together until that point.