A little girl grows up to be an accomplished artist in this sumptuously illustrated book about the small things that lead to a rich and fulfilling life. All You needIs a planet to live on,A sun to give you light,And warmth. . . In
All You Need, poet Howard Schwartz’s graceful, deceptively simple text describes a handful of things anyone needs to live a rich and fulfilling life, made all the more potent by the illustrations of debut picture book artist Jasu Hu, who uses her talents to create a rich and powerful narrative describing her own journey, creative and otherwise, from a childhood in China to her arrival to study art in New York. Ultimately, she creates her own book,
this book, a gift to her distant parents.
Howard Schwartz is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has published three books of poetry, and several books of fiction, including The Captive Soul of the Messiah and Adam's Soul. In addition, Schwartz has also published ten children's books, including
Before You Were Born, The Diamond Tree (with Barbara Rush, which won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in 1992
), Next Year in Jerusalem: 3000 Years of Jewish Tales, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Aesop Award of the American Folklore Society, both in 1996,
A Coat for the Moon (with Barbara Rush, which won Anne Izard Storyeller's Choice Award for 1998 and the 1999 Honor Title of the Storytelling World Awards, and
The Day the Rabbi Disappeared: Jewish Holiday Tales of Magic which won the National Jewish Book Award and The Aesop Prize of the American Folklore Society. His book,
Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, won the National Jewish Book Award for 2005 in the category of Reference. Schwartz lives in St. Louis with his wife Tsila, and his three children, Shira, Nathan and Miriam.
Jasu Hu was born in Hunan, China. She has worked as an illustrator in China for 6 years while studying Visual Communication at Tsinghua University (Beijing). After finishing her MFA in Illustration at MICA (USA), she moved to New York and started working as a freelance illustrator. She won the New Talent of AOI Illustration Award in 2014.
The Obama Legacy, a project she illustrated for The Washington Post, has won a national Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding New Approaches in Documentary.
★ "A beautiful, poetic look at what one needs to live a good life."
—School Library Journal, Starred Review "Schwartz’s poetic second-person text lists life’s essentials . . . while tracing a Chinese child’s maturation into a young artist. Debut illustrator Hu’s lush, full spreads follow the child and a swallow companion . . . through seasons and years. . . . Words and images gently align (the word
warmth against an orange backdrop) in this gentle register of needs that moves through physiological requirements to successful self-actualization."
—Publishers Weekly"[A] poetically reflective story. . . . The simple, lyrical lines are accompanied by beautifully detailed double-page watercolor illustrations, which are expressive of the poem's serenity in their gentle pastel tones and soft brushstrokes. . . This is a thoughtful take on needs versus wants, but it also explores the idea of belonging, both to a community and to the wider circle of life on our planet."
—Booklist
