Description
Book SynopsisSalvador Dalí just couldn’t help being himself. When he was little, he wasn’t like the other children; he was a day dreamer who liked to play pretend. When he grew up, he became an artist, but he didn’t want to make art that looked like everyone else’s. He became the most famous painter of his time after he made a picture of melting clocks. He liked to do wild, attention-grabbing things: He drove a fancy car stuffed with 1,000 pounds of cauliflower. He gave a speech inside a deep-sea diving suit. And he took his pet ocelot Babou to lunch at snooty restaurants. He designed lollipop wrappers in exchange for free candy, a lobster phone that really worked, and a hat made out of a shoe! Here’s the true story of the one and only Salvador Dalí, an artist who never stopped being himself.
Trade ReviewPraise for Just Being Dalí:"This paean to the avant-garde will resonate with those who march to their own drumbeats." —
Booklist
"A buoyant, kid-friendly distillation of Salvador Dalí’s life and art." —
Kirkus Reviews
"The irrepressible Dalí was as much a phenomenon as an artist, and this picture book biography wisely depicts him as both . . . Helquist’s familiar style of measured exuberance suits its subject well . . . An artist who focused on garnering attention and exploring absurdity has innate kid appeal." —
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"[Helquist's] colorful illustrations are playful and detailed . . . Engaging and imaginative." —
School Library Journal
"Entertaining . . . In swirling lines and jewel-like colors, Helquist’s oil on paper illustrations realistically depict Dalí’s carnivalesque world." —
Publishers Weekly
"Appropriately flamboyant." —
The Horn Book
