Matthew John Burgess

I’m going to tell you right away, no burying the lede here, the only flaw of this gorgeous little book is the title. I don’t have a better one for the author though – The Bear, The Balloon, and the All-Knowing Moon? The Bear and His Big Feelings? The Bear Learns Not to Give In to Guilt? Maybe The Bear and the Moon is fine after all.

Our hero is a sweet little bear, who one day chances to come across a red balloon. (Why are they always red? If you don’t have “99 Luftballons” in your head, you are not as old as I am.) The bear is enchanted by the simple pleasures of playing with a balloon, and proceeds to show his new playmate his home.

But the balloon is only a balloon, and the inevitable happens. The bear is devastated, and devastatingly, heartbreakingly, blames himself. He is miserable until the bright moon shines a light on the situation, and the bear can be at peace.

I’m not sure I can recall a picture book that tackles the emotion of guilt and its sneaky lies. But author Matthew Burgess and illustrator Catia Chien have written a whopper of one that manages to be gorgeous, and wise, and loving, and gentle. This book is a must-have for school and home libraries – highly, highly recommend.… (altro)

Review of The Red Tin Box: Matthew Burgess, Author, Evan Turk, Illustrator. A hardcover picture book published by Chronicle Books (April 4, 2023.)
It's a warm clear spring night and the Milky Way illuminates an infinite path in time to both past and future across the sky. A little girl, softly illuminated in red and pinks by the rising sun slips furtively from the house. She holds something close and tight.
So begins The Red Tin Box written by poet professor Matthew Burgess and illustrated by prodigy Evan Turk. Burgess's words and Turk's pictures meld together in a miraculous way to create an extraordinary story that appeals to all ages. It is a story of buried childhood dreams and the abiding bond between a grandmother and her granddaughter.
Meet Maude the secretive little girl who sneaks stealthy out of her house. She is eight years old- it's her birthday, and she is a girl on a mission. Maude walks silently until she comes to a flowering dogwood tree at the woods edge. She chooses a spot after the ground whispers, "here." She kneels down and begins to dig. After the hole is finished, Maude carefully puts a red box made of tin in the hole and carefully covers it up. The world blushes pink and rose from "the kiss" of the early morning sun. Geese honk as they fly overhead. Maude looks up through the dogwood tree toward the heavens and makes a promise to herself.
Seasons come and seasons go, the years slip away and Maude has a daughter. As her curly dark hair fades to white, her daughter has a daughter, Eve. One by one the treasures in her box disappear from her memory, but the box remains and "glows in one corner of her mind."
As Maude works in her garden one bright November afternoon she is consumed by a feeling redolent of long ago spring sunrise. The next day Maude picks up Eve after school in her classic red truck for a road trip. As they turn east and drive through four towns and across the Hudson River, Maude tells Eve about the red tin box she buried underneath the flowering dogwood many years before. She cautions Eve that they might not be able to find it – the box might be lost forever.
But there is the dogwood of her childhood and of her dreams. Holding Eve's hand Maude wanders around until a particular spot whispers, "here." Digging the cold hard ground was tough, but they took turns until they hear a metallic "clink."

Maude lifts out the box, brushes off the dirt, and holds it tight. On the way back home in the red truck, Maude laughs and cries as she tells Eve many of her childhood stories. When they arrive home Maude gives the red tin box to Eve. As dusk settles around her, Eve makes her way under her tree, and she holds the box close and tight. Eve looks up through the tree toward the heavens. Geese honk as they fly overhead, and she makes a promise to herself. The Milky Way illuminates an illimitable path in time to both past and future across the sky.
The Red Tin Box is Matthew Burgess's eleventh book and his seventh children's picture book. Although not immediately evident, the story is a narrative poem that is written in stanza form. As a young man, Burgess saw that poetry is a secret language of sorts . . . poetry can connect you with kindred spirits across time and space." Burgess says that poetry "invites you to wonder and look for truth in imagination."
"Burgess is a gifted poet, but he's also a gift-giver. The romance of childhood is absolutely tangible... " wrote poet, Lisa Jarnot, of Burgess's earlier poems. The same can be said of The Red Tin Box. Burgess's text is also generous, kind, and gentle without being insipid and cloyingly sentimental.

Evan Turk is somewhat of a prodigy; his first job offer resulted from a project he did while still at Parsons School of Design. With each subsequent book, his reputation has grown. A well-known children's book critic, Mel Schuit, had this to say of Evan's canon thus far: "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Evan Turk is one of the most adaptable and curious illustrators currently working in children's literature. No two books of his have the same artistic style, which is clearly a result of Evan continually pushing himself to explore new media and techniques. Every one of Evan's books feels simultaneously unique in aesthetic in tone and yet reflective of his style because of the stories he chooses to tell."
In The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art, Evan came very close to defining the stories he likes to tell. In the final illustration, hands transfigure into doves in the background while Ben, the grandfather, encourages a young artist in the foreground. They join together in a powerful image, with these words etched into the background, "l'dor vador," a Hebrew phrase meaning "from generation to generation." In all of Evan Turk's books, both authored and illustrated, with maybe Color the Sky being the only exception, this is his theme. In The Red Tin Box, generation to generation is the overarching theme.
Turk likes to let the subject matter help choose the medium; Evan chose to illustrate, The Red Tin Box, his eleventh book to illustrate, entirely with gouache, an opaque watercolor. Known for its flat matte finish and bold colors, gouache is very flexible – it can be used to paint the finest detail or render impressionistic images. Evan said of using gouache, ". . . I wanted the whole book to have a soft feeling like a memory." He did not, however, want to give up the precision when needed.
This choice of medium is in perfect harmony with Matthew Burgess's comparison of poetry to prose. "Poetry is more of an atmosphere that you are moving through – often you don't know where you are going. This disorientation is something I love about poetry. You are dropped into a landscape full of music and images, and you begin to find your way. There is a blur, which I love, and also moments of vividness and surprises."
Evan chose the palette from the hues of dawn to dusk and spring and fall. Gold and yellow ocher were dominant in the fall scenes. The color red is used throughout the story as the color tethers Maude and the reader to the box. Red is used in accessories like Maude's glasses, her scarf, her gloves and her red truck. The red color stays as an accessory color until the box is retrieved. The red continues to increase in each illustration until the climax. Maude gives the box to Eve and the pair is bathed in a red glowing light. Like Hitchcock in film, Turk has used a color as another layer of visual storytelling.
Another technique that Turk employs is the use of different vantage points in his illustrations. It provides interest, but also gives a sense of movement, a passing of time, and provides another layer of storytelling with the mood it creates, how we emotionally view the subject, and often the meaning of the scene. In six different viewpoints, we witness Maude's childhood.
Although not religious in any way, there is a spiritual quality to The Red Tin Box – maybe it's the circle of life and the passing of the seasons that is reminiscent of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: "For everything, there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven..." Maude's box is also evocative of a rough-hewn box, of Charles Tazewell's Littlest Angel, that belonged to a little boy from long ago filled with earthly treasures. As to Maude's earthly treasures buried within the little red, tin box....
What about the promises made by Maude and then Eve? Maybe the closest answer is a response Matthew gave when asked this question by his editor, "What does this story want to whisper to the reader's subconscious? "
Matthew answered, "To the child reader: "Never forget who you are now. As you grow up and change, hold onto your sense of wonder, and don't stray too far from 'here. To the adult reader: Remember the child you once were. If you have left her behind, go and search for her. Take that risk and dig."
The Red Tin Box is a five-star book that will appeal to adults as well as children. As C. S. Lewis said (or maybe not quite this way, but close enough), "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest." Mathew Burgess and Evan Turk, along with publisher, Chronicle Books, have produced a very fine children's book. In addition to every grandmother owning this book to read to her grandchild, the book would be brilliant in a school setting or local library to start discussions about making a memory or treasure box and to explore the occasions and uses of time capsules.
Matthew Burgess teams up with illustrator Josh Cochran again for Sylvester's Letter. The book is due to be released Aug 29, 2023. Other forthcoming books are: Edward Imagined: A Story of Edward Gorey (2024); Fireworks (2024); and, Words With Wings and Magic Things (2025).
Evan Turk authors and illustrates To See Clearly: A Portrait of David Hockney. Its release is due Sept. 19, 2023.… (altro)

The major retrospective book on the artist claims that when you see a Keith Haring painting you know instinctively that it’s his work. Unfortunately for his imitators (as in this book) this adage proves true again and again. Artist Josh Cochran attempts to infuse his compositions with a Haring-like feel, and while his pictures are fun and illustrate the artist’s life decently, they never quite reach the easy joy that Haring is known for. The biographical details and narrative crafted by Matthew Burgess are actually far more interesting than the illustrations, in my opinion, as they explore Keith’s life with accuracy while keeping it appropriate for young audiences. Considering that much of Haring’s work was beloved by children (and made specifically for them, in some cases), it’s a shame that the publisher felt the need to imitate his art rather than have an artist draw around the work that Keith has already done to make a more innovative book.… (altro)