Many Points of Me by Caroline Gertler
Hello, Caroline Gertler! Happy Wednesday! Welcome to Watch. Connect. Read.! Thank you for stopping by to celebrate Many Points of Me. What ran through your head (or your heart) the first time you saw Vesper Stamper’s cover illustration and Sylvie LeFloc’h’s cover design?
Caroline Gertler: Hello, Mr. Schu, and thank you so much for having me here today!
And the color palette and jacket design is stunning: I can’t wait to see it in real life, as the colors wrap onto the back in an evocative way, like the most beautiful sunset.
Please finish the following sentence starters:
Then Georgia finds a sketch her father made of her. One with pencil points marked on the back—just like those in the asterism paintings. Could this finally be the proof that the last painting would have been of her? Georgia’s quest to prove her theory takes her around her Upper West Side neighborhood in New York City and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was almost a second home to Georgia, having visited favorite artists and paintings there constantly with her father. But the sketch leads right back to where she’s always belonged—with the people who love her no matter what.
Georgia Rosenbloom is figuring out who she is, like many girls who are turning twelve. She’s still mourning the loss of her father, but she also thinks she should be ready to move on, somehow. For Georgia, losing Dad is like losing a piece of herself. What she realizes is that it’s okay to miss the Dad piece of her—she’ll always miss him, and he’ll always be a part of her. And she can express that through her art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a place dear to my heart. Like Georgia, I grew up in New York City, not too far from the Met. I loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and the childhood fantasy of spending the night in the museum sort of came true when I became a volunteer educator at the Met. I give public tours of Old Master paintings. Back in the day when the Met was closed to the public on Mondays, we’d have our volunteer training sessions. The experience of wandering through empty galleries was a true imagination-igniter. I wanted to write a story about a girl with an insider link to the Met.
Story is essential. Story is what makes us human. This remarkable, pulse-raising drive to know the why of things, the who, what, when, where, and how. Story is a compulsion, how we connect to and understand other people.
Mr. Schu, you should have asked me whether I’m an artist, too. I usually approach that with a resounding NO! I’m not a visual artist in the traditional sense. But I do have a deep appreciation of the visual arts—the beauty of color, line, and design. As a writer, I aspire to be an artist whose medium is words. I’m fascinated by the intersections of art, literature, and science, and I hope to spark that interest in readers of MANY POINTS OF ME.
Caroline Gertler: Hello, Mr. Schu, and thank you so much for having me here today!
The first time I saw Vesper Stamper’s beautiful illustration, my reaction definitely came from the heart. Vesper’s style is the perfect combination of sophisticated with a whimsical touch. She captures Georgia’s feeling of smallness in the world, set against the backdrop of a New York City skyline. The arch of stars represents the many points of Georgia, which you’ll understand better when you read the book.
And the color palette and jacket design is stunning: I can’t wait to see it in real life, as the colors wrap onto the back in an evocative way, like the most beautiful sunset.
It is gorgeous, Caroline! Congratulations!
Many Points of Me tells the story of New York City sixth-grader Georgia Rosenbloom, whose father was a famous artist. His most well-known paintings were a series of asterisms—patterns of stars—that he created. One represented a bird, one himself, and one Georgia’s mother. There was supposed to be a fourth, but Georgia’s father died before he could paint it. Georgia’s mother and her best friend, Theo, are certain that the last asterism would’ve been of Georgia, but Georgia isn’t so sure. She isn’t sure about anything anymore—including whether Theo is still her best friend.
Then Georgia finds a sketch her father made of her. One with pencil points marked on the back—just like those in the asterism paintings. Could this finally be the proof that the last painting would have been of her? Georgia’s quest to prove her theory takes her around her Upper West Side neighborhood in New York City and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was almost a second home to Georgia, having visited favorite artists and paintings there constantly with her father. But the sketch leads right back to where she’s always belonged—with the people who love her no matter what.
Georgia Rosenbloom is figuring out who she is, like many girls who are turning twelve. She’s still mourning the loss of her father, but she also thinks she should be ready to move on, somehow. For Georgia, losing Dad is like losing a piece of herself. What she realizes is that it’s okay to miss the Dad piece of her—she’ll always miss him, and he’ll always be a part of her. And she can express that through her art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a place dear to my heart. Like Georgia, I grew up in New York City, not too far from the Met. I loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and the childhood fantasy of spending the night in the museum sort of came true when I became a volunteer educator at the Met. I give public tours of Old Master paintings. Back in the day when the Met was closed to the public on Mondays, we’d have our volunteer training sessions. The experience of wandering through empty galleries was a true imagination-igniter. I wanted to write a story about a girl with an insider link to the Met.
Story is essential. Story is what makes us human. This remarkable, pulse-raising drive to know the why of things, the who, what, when, where, and how. Story is a compulsion, how we connect to and understand other people.
Mr. Schu, you should have asked me whether I’m an artist, too. I usually approach that with a resounding NO! I’m not a visual artist in the traditional sense. But I do have a deep appreciation of the visual arts—the beauty of color, line, and design. As a writer, I aspire to be an artist whose medium is words. I’m fascinated by the intersections of art, literature, and science, and I hope to spark that interest in readers of MANY POINTS OF ME.
Thank you, Caroline!
Caroline Gertler is a former editor at Wendy Lamb Books and she lives with her family in New York City. She has been leading tours as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2010. Many Points of Me is her first novel.
Caroline Gertler is a former editor at Wendy Lamb Books and she lives with her family in New York City. She has been leading tours as a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2010. Many Points of Me is her first novel.
Look for Many Points of Me on 1/12/2021.
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