By Yevgenia Nayberg (author) , Yevgenia Nayberg (illustrator)
"Haughty art icon meets the marvels of street culture (and learns a thing or two in the process)"
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Casting Mona Lisa as a self-important, been there, done that, bought-the-t-shirt-in-the- museum-gift-shop character (“She loved the attention! She loved the crowds…I know everything and everyone knows me”), Yevgenia Nayberg’s Mona Lisa in New York presents a playful, strikingly-illustrated picture book ode to New York’s distinctive wonders through its unique, irreverent take on a 500-year-old enigma.
After journeying across the ocean “so people far away could also admire her beauty”, and being marvelled at by crowds in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mona Lisa is in for a shock when she decides to wander the city alone at night and gets lost. No problem, she thinks. Everyone knows who I am.
Except they don’t. In fact, “No one paid any attention to her.” Thankfully, she encounters Tag, a graffiti art character from Brooklyn. While Mona Lisa is loath to accept that she’s the same as Tag, and while she initially insists that she knows everything, Tag kindly takes her hand and shows her NYC in all its kaleidoscopic glory - they listen to jazz in Harlem, eat pizza in the Bronx, salsa dance on the High Line, and swim on Brighton Beach.
“Turns out there’s so much I didn’t know,” she admits when they part. It also turns out that New York has captured Mona Lisa’s heart.
Great for introducing little ones to New York, this will also make an excellent springboard for talking about art and culture in all their forms.
In this beautiful and charming book, artist Yevgenia Nayberg, an immigrant to New York herself, shows young readers the city she has fallen in love with. Cleverly portraying da Vinci's iconic subject as a world-weary, know-it-all, Nayberg takes readers on a tour of New York.
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Mona Lisa and Tag eat pizza in the Bronx, listen to jazz in Harlem, dance to salsa music on the High Line, and swim at Brighton Beach. As Mona Lisa says goodbye to her new friend, she-and the readers-come away with a profound appreciation of the city and its wonders.
Yevgenia Nayberg is an illustrator, painter, and set and costume designer. Her illustrations have appeared in magazines and picture books, and on theatre posters, music albums, and book covers; her paintings, drawings, and illustrations are held in private collections worldwide. As a set and costume designer, she has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts/TCG Fellowship for Theatre Designers, the Independent Theatre Award and the Arlin Meyer Award. In 2018 she received a Sydney Taylor Silver Medal for her illustrations for Drop by Drop by Jaqueline Jules. Her debut author/illustrator picture book, Anya's Secret Society, came out in 2019 and received a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection Award. Her latest book, Typewriter, came out in 2020. Her next book, Mona Lisa in New York, will be published in 2021. Born and raised in Kiev, she now lives in New York City.
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The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Mona Lisa in New York and determined it is suitable for children aged 5-8 years old
Mona Lisa in New York features in the following genres: Art and Design, Educational: Arts, general, Educational material, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Books of the Month, Recommendations, Fantasy / Magical, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Featured Books for 7+ readers, People / Places, Children’s / Teenage: General interest, Featured Books for 5+ readers
Hardback. Not Available.
Mona Lisa in New York was written by Yevgenia Nayberg and published by Prestel
Mona Lisa in New York has 32 pages
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