Stone Mirrors: The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis

by Jeannine Atkins

Overview

From critically acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins comes a gorgeous, haunting biographical novel in verse about a half Native American, half African American sculptor working in the years following the Civil War.

A sculptor of historical figures starts with givens but creates her own vision. Edmonia Lewis was just such a sculptor, but she never spoke or wrote much about her past, and the stories that have come down through time are often vague or contradictory. Some facts are known: Edmonia was the daughter of an Ojibwe woman and an African-Haitian man. She had the rare opportunity to study art at Oberlin, one of the first schools to admit women and people of color, but lost her place after being accused of poisoning and theft, despite being acquitted of both. She moved to Boston and eventually Italy, where she became a successful sculptor.

But the historical record is very thin. The open questions about Edmonia’s life seem ideally suited to verse, a form that is comfortable with mysteries. Inspired by both the facts and the gaps in history, author Jeannine Atkins imagines her way into a vision of what might have been.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481459068
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	01/02/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Jeannine Atkins is the author of several books for young readers about courageous women, including Stone Mirrors: The Sculpture and Silence of Edmonia Lewis; Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science; and the highly praised Borrowed Names: Poems About Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C. J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters. Jeannine teaches children’s literature at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst and writing at Simmons College. She lives in western Massachusetts. Visit her at JeannineAtkins.com.

Read an Excerpt

Stone Mirrors

Old branches crack as Edmonia breaks

a path through the woods. She wants

to outrun fury, or at least make a distance

between herself and the poison spoken

at Oberlin. The school is a shop where she can’t buy,

a supper she’s never meant to taste,

a holiday she can’t celebrate

though she doesn’t want to be left out.

She runs under trees taller than those in town,

where they’re sawed into lumber,

turned into tables, rifles, or walls.

These woods are as close to home

as she may ever again get.

When she was given a chance to go

to boarding school, her aunts’ farewell was final.

People who move into houses

with hard walls don’t return to homes

that can be rolled and carried on backs.

Edmonia crouches to touch tracks

of birds and swift squirrels sculpted in snow,

the split hearts of deer hooves.

Boot prints are set far enough apart

to tell her the trespasser is tall,

shallow enough to guess he’s slender.

Her cold breath stops, like ice.

She looks up at a deer whose dark gaze

binds them, turns into trust.

Then a branch breaks. The deer flees.

Editorial Reviews

* “So much mystery surrounds the life of once-celebrated Ojibwe and African Haitian sculptor Edmonia Lewis, it’s a wonder novelist Atkins managed to piece together a cohesive narrative, much less such a splendid one. . . . How this brave, driven young woman overcame prejudice and trauma to pursue her artistic calling to the highest level . . . is a story that warrants such artful retelling.

starred review Booklist

"This is an excellent choice for collections seeking diversity in their biographies, especially those with intent on the curation of women in history and black American artists."

May/June 2017 - School Library Connection

Written with sensitivity and grace, this compelling title of injustice and vindication will leave readers pondering the complicated relationship between pain and art.

BCCB

11/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—Edmonia Lewis was a sculptor of African American and Native American descent who worked in the post—Civil War era. While at Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the first colleges to be both interracial and coed, she was accused of poisoning two girls but was found innocent. However, she was asked not to return the following semester. Also in college, Edmonia survived a violent attack, during which she was raped and beaten—an event that plagued her for the rest of her life. After leaving Oberlin, she moved to Boston, where she was able to learn to sculpt with a local artist. Eventually, she found her way to Rome, and some of her work was displayed at the World's Fair in Philadelphia in 1876. Her pieces are still part of the collections at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Written in verse, this biographical novel imagines the events in Lewis's life with short, swift-moving chapters that flow smoothly from one episode to another. The dialogue appears in italics, which might initially confuse some readers, but once acclimated, they will be able to identify the speakers. The back matter includes a short prose biography of Lewis and explains why the author chose to write a fictionalized version of the artist's life. Also listed are Atkins's sources—mostly other people's letters and diaries about the artist. This poetic interpretation of a life may encourage readers to seek out Lewis's sculptural work. VERDICT A good purchase for collections looking for more diverse materials, especially those featuring women artists and people of color.—Kristin Anderson, Bloomingdale Public Library, IL

School Library Journal

★ 2016-09-19
Edmonia Lewis was a noted African-American sculptor whose career begins in this verse novel set in the late 1800s. Edmonia, who is of African-Haitian and Ojibwe descent, is attending the newly racially integrated Oberlin College in 1862. The story opens immediately with a secret romance that barely has a chance to blossom, as a startling scandal arises when Edmonia is accused of the attempted murder of two white female students she had befriended. Though she is acquitted, Edmonias character is permanently scarred by the event, and she is forced to leave Oberlin before graduating. Fate connects Edmonia to mentoring from accomplished sculptors, which leads her to travel to Rome, a place where she flourishes to become an internationally known sculptor. From sparse historical records, Atkins creates a memorable, poetic tale that offers a fictional account of what life may have been like for Edmonia, backgrounding this with solid research into the era. Stories of doomed love, in particular the biblical tale of Hagar, act as thematic touchstones, and her determination to sculpt Cleopatra forms the storys spine. Atkins compressed verse evokes both the racial realities of the time, including violence, and the artistic process: Art is made of questions and craft. / What she doesnt know shapes her work / along with the hope that someone believes / in her. Atkins describes her process in an authors note. A fascinating, tantalizing glimpse. (bibliography) (Verse historical fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews