Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing
By Jan Carr,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Joyous biography of artist celebrates creativity.
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What's the Story?
The biography KEITH HARING: THE BOY WHO JUST KEPT DRAWING starts in Keith Haring's youth, when his father taught him to draw and he doodled on his work at school. Young Keith was bubbling over with creativity and always drawing. He won an art prize in high school, went to art school in Pittsburgh, and then moved to New York City, where he painted murals on the subway and exhibited in galleries. As his work became internationally successful, Keith continued to find ways to offer his art to the public for everyone to enjoy.
Is It Any Good?
This biography does a great job of portraying Haring as a joyous, passionate, bighearted artist, very relatable to quirky, artistic kids. In Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing, the story is carried along by the infectious repeated refrain "He just kept drawing," reflecting the author's experience of her soon-to-be famous brother when they were still kids. It emphasizes Haring's commitment to public work, highlighting projects that were for or involved kids, though it might have added even more depth if it had presented him more explicitly as a gay role model and touched on the savvy ways he was able to use his art in his activism.
Robert Neubecker's exuberant illustrations hit all the right notes, incorporating Haring's own art, communicating Haring's appealing presence, and conveying the energetic diversity of New York City. The book ends with an afterword and an index of art that includes the pieces he did as a kid, carrying the implicit message that kids' art is important, as worthy as work displayed in galleries.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the art in Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing. How does the art he made when he was older look like the pictures he drew when he was young?
Why do you think Keith liked to draw outside, in the subway and on building walls?
The last pages picture all the art that appears in the book. Can you find each piece of art in the story? What about the ones his father and sisters drew?
Book Details
- Author: Kay A. Haring
- Illustrator: Robert Neubecker
- Genre: Picture Book
- Topics: Arts and Dance, Great Boy Role Models
- Book type: Non-Fiction
- Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
- Publication date: February 14, 2017
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 5 - 8
- Number of pages: 40
- Available on: Hardback
- Last updated: July 13, 2017
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