Book to Share: Botticelli's Apprentice, by Ursula Murray Husted

One of my very favorite thing about having high schoolers is the way that when I take the time to dive into their passions, I find my own expanding. Case in point: graphic novels. I have always generally enjoyed graphic novels, but my oldest daughter’s deep dive into the world of comics and sequential art has led me to a much greater appreciation for this art form (and it has subsequently influenced my own writing). So I found myself a month ago, scrolling through possible books to review on Netgalley, suddenly shouting to my daughter in delight: “Hey, Lucy, guess what? Scott McCloud endorsed this new graphic novel! It must be pretty good, at least from an art standpoint.”

Scott McCloud (I will explain to those of you like the me of two years ago) is basically Yoda of the comics world. He has studied everything about the topic, analyzed it at every level, and stepped up to train all the young comics Jedis in his ways. His books Understanding Comics and Making Comics are the textbooks par excellence of the graphic novel world. Through studying them, my daughter has come to have—and share with me, at some level—a deep understanding of the art form: what makes it work, and what makes it great.

And Boticelli’s Apprentice is definitely one of the good ones—I mean, it already has an endorsement from Yoda, but I’ll throw in my two cents from the storytelling side of things as well. 

Here’s what the publisher has to say:
Life as a chicken girl isn’t so bad, but Mella wants more. Though girls can’t be official apprentices to artists in Florence, Mella has been secretly teaching herself to paint while tending to artist Sandro Botticelli’s chickens.
When one of Botticelli’s actual apprentices discovers Mella’s work, he threatens to take full credit for it. Why does it matter who drew it if it’s good?
With the help of unexpected allies, an important patron, and a tenacious stray dog named Blue, Mella must summon all her courage, smarts, and skills to prove her worth and demand the recognition she deserves.

One interesting thing about this story is that you’d think it would take some considerable suspension of disbelief to buy into a story about a girl who wants to be Botticelli’s apprentice... because most of us know how unlikely that would be—so unlikely that a girl probably wouldn’t even have such a dream in the first place. Ursula Murray Husted took a huge risk in telling such a story, and another huge risk in telling this story in modern dialect. There is no attempt to make her characters sound like Italians from hundreds of years ago; rather, you could imagine overhearing most of the conversations in a local 21st century restaurant or at least art school. The funny thing is, it totally works. And not only does it work, but that choice in dialect succeeded in making her choice of story seem more plausible as well. Or at least easy to suspend disbelief. I found myself saying, “Yeah, I know this isn’t a real historical story, and I don’t care. I want to go along for the ride anyway.”
That’s not to say she didn’t get the historical details right. In fact, her research into art and lifestyles of the Renaissance was thorough and well represented in both narration and art. Being a bit of a nerd about art details like pigments, I really enjoyed all the discussion of various ways artists made different colors, and the difference in quality, durability, etc. Clearly the aforementioned risks were intentional.

I’ll dip my toe into artistic critique just for a moment. The colors are gorgeous. The pictures are interesting to look at but so perfectly paced (if that’s the right word for pictures in sequential art) that I almost forgot they were there unless I stopped to pay attention. They just told the story and pulled me right along. Scott McCloud (or my daughter) could probably tell you exactly why they worked so well. I just know that I loved every minute of the story.

Botticelli’s Apprentice releases on March 11 but is available for pre-order now. (I received an electronic ARC from Netgalley.)

For more Marvelous Middle Grade Monday recommendations, be sure to visit Always in the Middle: http://gpattridge.com