Synopses & Reviews
Dawn is a 1974 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year.
Review
"Drawn from a Chinese poem, the spare text tells of an old man and his grandson asleep by the shore of a mountain lake. With the approach of daylight, the watercolor illustrations slowly become more focused and detailed...Serene, simple, and stunning, this is Shulevitz at his best."--Starred,
School Library Journal"Shulevitz, winner of the Caldecott Medal, has created a book which, in every sense of the word, abounds in beauty...A unique, unforgettable experience for both children and adults."--The Reading Teacher
"Beginning with the first hint of dawn, each subtle change of atmosphere and color is recorded in a series of stunning and poetic illustrations. A boy and his grandfather awaken and row out in their boat just as the dawn breaks dramatically over the mountain-- with such realism of color and light that the reader almost feels his pupils narrow as the light increases. An artistic tour de force of accuracy and sensitivity."--Parents Magazine
Synopsis
An ALA Notable Book.
A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year.
About the Author
Uri Shulevitz is a Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator and author. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, on February 27, 1935. He began drawing at the age of three and, unlike many children, never stopped. The Warsaw blitz occurred when he was four years old, and the Shulevitz family fled. For eight years they were wanderers, arriving, eventually, in Paris in 1947. There Shulevitz developed an enthusiasm for French comic books, and soon he and a friend started making their own. At thirteen, Shulevitz won first prize in an all-elementary-school drawing competition in Paris's 20th district. In 1949, the family moved to Israel, where Shulevitz worked a variety of jobs: an apprentice at a rubber-stamp shop, a carpenter, and a dog-license clerk at Tel Aviv City Hall. He studied at the Teachers' Institute in Tel Aviv, where he took courses in literature, anatomy, and biology, and also studied at the Art Institute of Tel Aviv. At fifteen, he was the youngest to exhibit in a group drawing show at the Tel Aviv Museum. At 24 he moved to New York City, where he studied painting at Brooklyn Museum Art School and drew illustrations for a publisher of Hebrew books. One day while talking on the telephone, he noticed that his doodles had a fresh and spontaneous look—different from his previous illustrations. This discovery was the beginning of Uri's new approach to his illustrations for The Moon in My Room, his first book, published in 1963. Since then he was written and illustrated many celebrated childrens books. He won the Caldecott Medal for The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, written by Arthur Ransome. He has also earned three Caldecott Honors, for The Treasure, Snow and How I Learned Geography. His other books include One Monday Morning, So Sleepy Story, and many others. He also wrote the instructional guide Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Childrens Books. He lives in New York City.