Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Marianthe's Story: Spoken Memories FROM THE PUBLISHER
Returning to her own childhood for inspiration, Aliki has created an exceptional sixty-four-page book that presents Marianthe's story — her present and her past. In Painted Words, Marianthe's paintings help her to become less of an outsider as she struggles to adjust to a new language and a new school. Under the guidance of her teacher, who understands that there is more than one way to tell a story, Mari makes pictures to illustrate the history of her family, and eventually begins to decipher the meaning of words. In Spoken Memories, a proud Mari is finally able to use her new words to narrate the sequence of paintings she created, and share with her classmates her memories of her homeland and the events that brought her family to their new country.
00-01 Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award Reading List
About the Author
Aliki grew up in Philadelphia in a very Greek family. Her talent for drawing, first recognized by her kindergarten teacher, was encouraged by her parents and other teachers she will never forget.
After graduating from the Philadelphia College of Art, she started a career in advertising art. She married Franz Brandenberg and lived in Switzerland for three years, where she wrote and illustrated her first book, The Story of William Tell.
After they moved to New York, she wrote My Five Senses, the book that changed her career and her life. Besides her own books, Aliki has illustrated many by other authors, including Franz. Their children, Jason and Alexa, who have artistic careers of their own, appear in many of Aliki's books as cats, mice, or themselves.
Aliki loves music, theater,films, museums, reading, and digging in her garden in London, where she lives. She travels frequently to the United States, Greece, Switzerland, and other countries, many of which are reflected in her books. NOTES FROM ALIKI
0nce, when I was reading one of my books to Jason, who was just learning words, I asked him, "What is my name?" He said, "Byaliki." I laughed. But in many ways I am a bi-Aliki. Greek and American. Bilingual. Author and illustrator. Writer of fiction and nonfiction-books that come from inside out (feeling books), and outside in (research books).
I had no thought of becoming a writer until it happened. But early on, I developed a lifelong habit of writing down my feelings. I realized it helped me understand my hurt, anger, bewilderment, or happiness. Words flowed out into poetry, letters, and journals. It was practice for later on.
I wrote The Two of Them when my father died. I wrote We Are Best Friends when we moved from New York to London. I wrote about my childhood seaside vacations in Those Summers. In fact, it was on one such family vacation that I was born unexpectedly (in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey — but we never lived there)!
Marianthe's Story, two books in one volume, is very much my own. In one of its two parts — Painted Words — Mari is lucky to have such an understanding teacher and the ability to express herself through pictures (as was 1). In Spoken Memories, the villagers are composites of family and friends, and the voice is often my grandmother's. She cared passionately about education and passed it on to us.
All by Myself! — snapped after watching my nephew Peter, who was just learning to dress himself. We can take nothing for granted. All skills — from the simplest to the most complicated — are learned. They take patience, perseverance, and determination. With some, a little talent helps. Life is one big challenge. I'm still trying to learn to swim.
My research books come from a fascination with a subject I know only a glimmer about. It can take three years to read, delve, dig, write, and repeat the process for the illustrations. It can be torture, because Virgos don't like to make mistakes.
To write My Visit to the Aquarium, I visited eleven aquariums — the most fun research ever. But then I had to get the right fish into the right tank. My Visit to the Zoo was even harder. Nine zoos, hundreds of books, magazines, and related matter. And with all due respect to the author, the illustrator has twice the work. I call it hard fun.
All books — read or made — change lives. None more than William Shakespeare & the Globe. I was challenged by wanting to compress 40.0 years into 38 pages, to tell (in words and pictures) a story that comes full circle. It didn't help that we know very little about Shakespeare the man. But I was enveloped by his words — which brought him to life. When I finally finished, the pain of loss — which lasted months — was like parting from a beloved friend.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In perhaps her most personal work to date, Aliki presents two equally moving sides to Marianthe's story, the first as a new arrival to a foreign America, and the second the explanation of why she came. A third-person narrative describes the girl's first days of school; Mari struggles with English until she realizes that art translates to all languages. One day, as Mari prepares to tell her story through her paintings, the sympathetic teacher announces that "there is more than one way to tell a story. Someday Mari will be able to tell us with words." Readers then flip the book over to begin the second installment, for which Mari capably uses words to explain her background. Here Mari's first-person narration recounts her early years in the old country, where extended family and community pulled together to grow food and to weather such tragedies as war and famine. Like her character, Aliki spins her tale gracefully in two media, placing words and art in impressive balance, and inventively incorporates a reverse-chronological sequence to fill in the details. Aliki takes an artistic leap, as she paints her characters with a range of extraordinarily expressive faces in close-up portraits, and effectively employs a changeable palette from the dusty grays of troubled past times to the chipper hues of a contemporary classroom. In an America comprised of immigrants, many youngsters facing the same sea changes as Mari will likely find her a stalwart companion, and those with a Mari in their lives may gain a newfound respect for the strength it takes to make the journey. Ages 5-up. (Sept.)
Children's Literature - Sheree van Vreede
First, there is the story of Marianthe's assimilation into an American elementary school. Her family has just moved to this country, and she doesn't speak any English. The only way she can really communicate with the other children is through her drawings. Eventually, she learns how to speak as well as read and write. The second story is read by flipping the book over. Now readers can listen to Marianthe tell her teacher and classmates her "life story," which reveals the hardships and joys that her family has endured. The soft, muted illustrations give a soothing feel to this special story about an endearing heroine.
Children's Literature - Jan Lieberman
In a unique picture book, Aliki shares her memories of being the "outsider" in a new school in Philadelphia. At first her only means of communication was through her drawings as she struggled with learning a new language. Later she could write and tell the rest of her story. Both titles appear under the same cover, just turn the book over to see the rest of Marianthe's story. This will touch the heart of every child who has ever experienced the pain of being different. It is also a tribute to caring teachers who help children recover their self-esteem. In our multi-ethnic classrooms this is must reading.
School Library Journal
K-Gr 3-These two carefully written stories, combined in one book, show the difficulties a child faces when coming to a new land and the unique heritage each one of us has. In Painted Words Marianthe, or Mari, starts school knowing no one and unable to speak or understand the language. She expresses herself and her feelings through her art. She shares her experiences and new knowledge with her mother, who provides the girl with warm reassurance. Finally the day comes when Mari is able to stand before the class with her paintings and tell her story with her new words, "page by painted page." Flip the book over for Spoken Memories. It is Mari's turn to tell her class what her life was like in her native land. The setting is a small, poor village, probably in Greece, but it could be anywhere. In simple, understated language, Aliki has captured the emotions and experiences of many of today's children. Colored-pencil and crayon illustrations in soft primary and secondary colors reinforce the mood of the text. Sometimes the art occupies a page by itself; sometimes the space is shared with text. The occasionally oversized heads and wide eyes of the children in otherwise realistic drawings lend a childlike and endearing quality. An illuminating book for all collections that serve youngsters from other lands.-Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA
Horn Book
The story of a young immigrant girl from an unnamed country is told in a pair of back-to-back picture books. The first, Painted Words, describes Marianthe's adjustment to her American school; the second, Spoken Memories (arrived at by flipping the book over), allows the girl to tell her own story of why she and her mother came to this country. This sequencing is smart, allowing readers to get to know Marianthe the way her classmates do, as a new girl unable at first to speak a word of English, hearing her classmates' and teacher's words as "sputters and coughs," and only able to communicate through her paintings. In the second story Marianthe, now able to speak English, describes her idyllic homeland, a war, a famine, the death of her baby brother, and her father leaving to prepare for them all a better life in America. The absence of Marianthe's father in the first story is not explained; similarly, the fact that her homeland is not named is more distracting than universalizing (although the eastern Mediterranean is suggested by the flora and foods). Enhanced by the album-like design, Aliki's colored-pencil and crayon drawings are warm and expansive, giving heart to the somewhat purposive text. Marianthe herself is a solid presence in almost every picture: secure in the embrace of her family back home; solemn, initially scared, in Mr. Petrie's classroom; relaxed and confiding in a windblown scene where's she's hanging out wash with her mother; happy at the center of her classmates when she can finally tell her story.
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