FROM THE PUBLISHER

One day, a small girl finds a wounded bird. She knows where to go for help, because on her street live two women known as the Clay Ladies. Their home is an old church full of wonders: half-finished statues and pieces of pottery. The Clay Ladies help bring the bird back to life, just as they infuse pieces of clay with life. Moreover they introduce the girl to the world of clay. Although the incident is imaginary, this beautifully written story is based on the lives of artists Frances Loring and Florence Wyle.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Kristin Harris

Children have special memories of those creative adults, they meet and especially those who open new vistas of expression for them. The Clay Ladies did that for this little girl. It was their reputation for being a friend to wounded animals that got the little girl to venture to their door with a sick baby bird. That started a long relationship with the two women who were sculptors working in clay. Their home and studio was an old church, and it was full of boxes, books and stacks of paper, as well as their sculptures. The bird recovered enough to be released, but not before the little girl served as the inspiration for a sculpture and created one of her own. The watercolor illustrations give a real sense of the treasures housed in the studio of these two artists.

Library Journal

Gr 2-4-Based roughly on the lives of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, two 20th-century sculptors, this quiet reminiscence tells of a young boy who listens as his grandmother recounts the story of the Clay Ladies. Once, in her youth, she protected a nestling robin from a neighborhood cat by carrying it to the sculptors' home since they were known to have "a way with wounded things." It is their lasting influence on her life that is the basis of her story. From the Clay Ladies she learned her love and respect of living things and the careful attention to the natural world that led her to also become a sculptor. Tait's awareness of detail is apparent in the full-page paintings of the artists' cluttered studio. His use of perspective and light is intriguing. Outdoor scenes, gloriously sun-dappled by means of paint dotted onto tree branches in shades ranging from dark green to white, emphasize the allusions to the wonders of nature. The sensitive description in the grandson's narrative on the first and last pages seems overly sophisticated for one so young, but this is a minor flaw. It is his grandmother's story that counts here, for she introduces two strong, sensitive women who, much like Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius (Viking, 1982), helped others to see the beauty of life.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Hungry Mind Review

...[S]erves to teach young readers about the value and permanence of art.