Rodríguez, Rachel (Rachel Victoria Rodríguez)

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Rodríguez, Rachel (Rachel Victoria Rodríguez)

Personal

Born in Ann Arbor, MI. Education: University of California, Berkeley, graduate.

Addresses

Home and office—San Francisco, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Educator and author. Former park ranger; former high school teacher and K-12 teacher trainer. Workshop facilitator and speech coach. Contributor to programming for National Public Radio.

Member

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, National Art Education Association, Northern California Children's Booksellers Association.

Writings

Through Georgia's Eyes, illustrated by Julie Paschkis, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of articles to Los Angeles Times.

Sidelights

A speech coach and workshop facilitator based in northern California, Rachel Rodríguez attained her lifelong dream of becoming a writer when her picture book Through Georgia's Eyes was published in 2006. Featuring evocative illustrations by Julie Paschkis, the book is its author's way of honoring legendary painter Georgia O'Keeffe, an early-twentieth-century artist who Rodríguez credits as one of her primary inspirations. A short biography, Through Georgia's Eyes reveals the experiences of the creative child who would grow up to painting images that are considered early examples of abstract modernism.

Born in 1887 and raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, O'Keeffe learned to paint using water colors as a child, and determined to become a painter at a young age. Although her decision attracted disapproval from some, O'Keeffe moved to Chicago in 1905, and went on to study with numerous well-known artists of her day. Pairing her fact-laced text with Paschkis's brightly colored cut-paper-collage illustrations, Rodríguez helps readers understand the woman behind O'Keeffe's paintings, as well as the world she painted in. "It is not often that author, illustrator and subject come together so seamlessly" remarked a Kirkus Reviews critic in discussing Through Georgia's Eyes, while School Library Journal Carolyn Janssen cited "the clarity of text and illustrations." Carolyn Phelan praised the work as "written and illustrated with directness and sensitivity," concluding in her Booklist review that Through Georgia's Eyes "is a fresh, original portrait of the artist."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Through Georgia's Eyes, p. 109.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, April, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of Through Georgia's Eyes, p. 371.

Horn Book, May-June, 2006, Lolly Robinson, review of Through Georgia's Eyes, p. 347.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2006, review of Through Georgia's Eyes, p. 136.

Publishers Weekly, February 20, 2006, review of Through Georgia's Eyes, p. 156.

School Library Journal, March, 2006, Carolyn Janssen, review of Through Georgia's Eyes, p. 212; October, 2006, review of Through Georgia's Eyes, p. 37.