School Library Journal Review
Gr 5 Up-- From the age of three, Wang Yani has shown a remarkable feeling for color and design. Her creative brushwork in the xieyi hua or free form style of Chinese art was recognized by art experts by the time she was four years old. Her work has been shown in museums and galleries around the world and has even been featured on a Chinese postage stamp. Now 16, she has advanced from animal and plant themes to more sophisticated subjects, but always with an extraordinary sense of balance and grace and with a traditionally Chinese appreciation for the uses of space. This book is liberally illustrated with Wang Yani's artwork, in full color, arranged chronologically. In her paintings, monkeylike creatures, made furry and graceful with skillful strokes of watercolor brushwork, glide and cavort across the papers. Boughs hung with fruit and leaves provide accents and background. The color photographs showing the young painter at home, traveling with her father, and playing with schoolmates are a wonderful introduction to Chinese culture and to a remarkable young artist. Zhensun and Low's account presents a uniformly happy picture of Wang Yani's success and reads, in places, like a promotional pamphlet for her next exhibition. But the book is worth purchasing for several reasons: as a biography of a highly talented young person, as an explanation and introduction to Chinese art, and, most particularly, for the collection of delightful pictures of monkeys, birds, mountains, and trees that speak the universal language of fine art and will delight anyone who opens the pages of this unusual book. --Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The unique talents of a Chinese child prodigy are illuminated in this account of her still-burgeoning career. At the age of three Yani proclaimed, ``I want to paint and paint'' and proceeded to produce playful renderings of monkeys that astounded her family and the art world. By her 10th birthday Yani had held solo exhibitions of her fresh and energetic works in major cities all over the world. The book's cohesive text is peppered with anecdotes that offer a glimpse of Yani's personality and her mostly commonplace home life, while high-quality full-color reproductions of her paintings fill a substantial number of pages. Explanations of Yani's technique and materials--she paints entirely from memory and uses traditional Chinese inks and rice papers--are engrossing and not overly technical. Zhensun and Low portray Yani as introspective and likable but not terribly approachable; their writing leads readers to admire her from a respectful distance. Budding artists will find a wealth of inspiration here, but all readers will relish viewing Yani's paintings and marvel at her extraordinary gift. All ages. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Wang Yani is a sixteen-year-old Chinese artist who began her extraordinary painting career at age two. Her life and her paintings are detailed in a rambling text that varies in content between the extremely detailed and broad generalities, between a simple chronicling of Yani's accomplishments and stories of her family life. The rather stilted prose gives a good idea not only of Yani's talent, but of her prodigious output. Over fifty examples of her work are interspersed with pictures of Yani painting and on tour with her exhibitions. A concluding section explains Chinese painting technique. A fascinating subject handled in an uneven manner. Ind. From HORN BOOK 1991, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An enormously talented Chinese painter, born in 1975, is the subject of this profusely illustrated biography. ``Yani'' is especially fortunate in her father, also an artist, who firmly believed (despite tradition) that Yani's art should be allowed to develop naturally, with minimal instruction and no classical exercises such as copying others' work. From her first promising scribbles at two, he provided the materials she needed; by the time she was three, she was recognized as a prodigy--a judgment that the beguiling art so beautifully reproduced here fully justifies. At six, her work was exhibited in Europe; she had a one-person show in 1989 at the Smithsonian. The authors touch lightly on Yani's apparently privileged background, focusing on the evolution of her art in response to her increasing skill, maturing interests, and enriching experiences (including travel) deliberately provided by her father. Dimensions and Yani's age at the time of painting are cited for each picture reproduced (though not locations--were some of the thousands of paintings sold? Is Yani also a commercial success?); two foldouts allow a better view of more extensive works; photos show the happy, intent girl at work at many ages; a detailed appendix describes the tools and techniques of the traditional style that Yani adapts to her highly individual work. A handsome book--and a fascinating, lucidly written portrait of a uniquely creative artist. Glossary; maps; index. (Biography. 9+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-8. For review, see Focus on p.321.