When I finished Javaka Steptoe’s Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, my first thought was, Every library should have this book. I loved it.
First, I loved the format of the drawings. As author and illustrator Javaka Steptoe explains in his author’s note:
Like Jean-Michel Basquiat, I used bits of New York City to create the artwork for this book. I painted on richly textured pieces of found wood harvested from discarded Brooklyn Museum exhibit materials, the Dumpsters of Brooklyn brownstones, and the streets of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side. In this way, I invite my readers to create using the materials, people, and places in their environment.
How inspiring is that? I love the lesson of painting on anything, making art anywhere, using found materials. Seeing that style in both Basquiat’s and Steptoe’s work makes it feel possible for anyone. I think it speaks to this message:
Art is the street games of little children,
in our style and the words that we speak.
It is how the messy patchwork of the city
creates new meaning for ordinary things.
Art is created from everyday experiences, for everyday people. And it’s such an important message for kids about what is art, what constitutes art — and opening that up to a different definition. Steptoe says, “His [Basquiat’s] drawings are not neat or clean, nor does he color inside the lines. They are sloppy, ugly, and sometimes weird; but somehow still beautiful.” Isn’t that also a great lesson about both art and life?
Second, the colors Steptoe uses are so vibrant and full of life: it makes you feel how alive Basquiat’s work is. Fluorescent green, flaming reds and oranges, golden yellow, white, black, electric blue, all popping off the page. There are so many fun things to look at in the illustrations — like what Basquiat is graffitiing, reviews of Basquiat’s work, what Basquiat listened to while he painted, examples of his early drawings (Samson, Spiderman). You get a fuller sense for his life.
Third, the story gracefully handles Basquiat’s mother’s mental illness, a topic rarely covered in children’s books:
Back at home, Jean-Michel’s body heal, but his heart breaks.
His mother’s mind is not well, and the family breaks.
She no longer lies on the floor and draws with Jean-Michel,
but sits by the window, singing only to birds.
Jean-Michel is confused and filled with a terrible blues,
when Matilde can no longer live at home.
It’s heartbreaking — but how reassuring to see a hero struggle with parental mental illness and see him survive and succeed. Steptoe mentions in a postscript how his own mother struggled with mental illness, and he offers Basquiat’s story as “a catalyst for conversation and healing.”
(My only quibble with Radiant Child is Basquiat’s desire for fame. It feels like an empty desire and a somewhat complicated thing to present to children. However, it’s Basquiat’s story and true to his life, so it must be included. And perhaps it’s a point to discuss with children.)
Radiant Child offers so much to the reader: a rich and rewarding visual experience; an inspiring and heartbreaking story; and a lens on what art is and what it means to be an artist. Five very passionate stars!
Steptoe, J. (2016). Radiant child: The story of young artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. New York, NY: Little, Brown.
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