Read it or Weep

I was introduced to the work of author and illustrator Maira Kalman twenty some years ago from my work at a children’s bookstore  – books such as Sayonara Mrs. Kackleman, Hey Willie, See the Pyramids and Max Makes a Million with their quirky, whimsical illustrations and equally quirky writing were immediately endearing.

I rediscovered her a couple years ago when she did an illustrated column/blog for the New York Times musing about a year in her life entitled The Principles of Uncertainty, later turned into a book by the same title. The book includes her observations about family hardships endured, everday humanity, and discovered novelties.  She now has another online monthly illustrated column. This one, entitled The Pursuit of Happiness, is about American democracy. From January to, so far, September, she has written her observations about the presidential inauguration, immigrants, Abe Lincoln, and how the garbage of New York is handled. Kalman has a particular gift for pointing out the joy, beauty and interest of small and simple things – people’s hats, plates of eggs and sewage plants – and for waxing philosophical on larger issues – the duty of soldiers, the barriers that American women face. She creates these colorful vignettes of image and written word that are expressive and optimistic and that celebrate life and…she makes me smile.

~ Dori