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Title details for You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce! by Chiquita Mullins Lee - Available

You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce!

The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierce

by Chiquita Mullins Lee
Carmella Van Vleet
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
CREEEAK! goes the screen door to Elijah Pierce's barbershop. In Columbus, Ohio, a young boy walks in for an ordinary haircut and walks out having discovered an extraordinary collection of art—and the lifetime of stories that inspired it all.
Mr. Pierce's wood carvings are in every corner of the small barbershop, which doubles as an art studio. With a pocketknife, Mr. Pierce creates animals, scenes from his own life, and even portrayals of the sociopolitical world around him. It's
this collection of work that will eventually win Mr. Pierce the highest folk-art honor in the United States. But the young boy visiting the shop doesn't know that yet. All he knows is: "You gotta meet Mr. Pierce!"
Based on the true story of artist Elijah Pierce and his community barbershop, this picture book biography is a new and engaging offering on a hidden figure in Black art history. Featuring charming text by Chiquita Mullins Lee and Carmella Van
Vleet, You Gotta Meet Mr. Pierce! The Storied Life of Folk Artist Elijah Pierceillustrates for the youngest readers that art is everywhere when you look for it. As Mr. Pierce says, "The more you look, the more you see."

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 31, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705040751
      • File size: 7339 KB
      • Duration: 00:15:17

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 19, 2022
      In a fictionalized story centering wood carver and folk artist Elijah Pierce (1892–1984), a narrating child and their father head into Pierce’s barbershop. “You gotta meet Mr. Pierce,” Dad says as they enter the shop, where “Wood carvings. They’re everywhere! And laughter. Razors and roaring laughter. Scissors and stories. Tonics and tunes on the radio.” As the child receives a haircut and connects with Pierce over an uncertainty about what to draw, Mullins Lee and Van Vleet use the duo’s conversation to relay Pierce’s early experiences carving “anything I could think of” after receiving a pocketknife as a boy. Next, Pierce shows father and child his carvings—animal figures, personal scenes that reveal biographical details, and the only wooden Bible storybook of its kind—before giving the child a carved elephant figurine, and some inspiration. Action words (“DRAPE /SNAP,” “SAND/DUST”) evoke movement and expertise throughout, while Mack-Watkins’s use of woodcut textures brings the subject’s medium to the fore. Back matter includes creators’ notes and further material. Ages 4–8.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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