Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O'Keeffe Painted What She Pleased

K-Gr 4--O'Keeffe spent three months touring Hawaii in 1939 as a guest of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (which later became Dole). In return, she was to produce two paintings to promote her sponsor's juice. The trouble started when the company refused the artist's request to live near the fields (only laborers did that), instead presenting her with a pineapple to reproduce. How the two sides moved from offending one another to reconciliation is the central conflict in this lush, carefully researched book. Novesky's selection of salient details of the relationship and the journey allows the text to be brief while providing fascinating tidbits for readers and a fertile ground for Morales's imaginative acrylic and digital compositions, many of which were inspired by O'Keeffe's abstract art as well as her famous flowers, skyscrapers, and streetlights. Cool, green rainforest settings contrast with brilliant, fuchsia skies in which the protagonist is framed by larger-than-life philodendron, hibiscus, and plumeria. Flowers are identified on the endpapers. Photographs of the commissions would have been helpful, but author and illustrator notes are provided. This title fits beautifully between a portrait of the artist as a young woman in Jen Bryant's Georgia's Bones (Eerdmans, 2005) and as an older one in Kathryn Lasky's Georgia Rises (Farrar, 2009).--Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library

While most people associate Georgia O'Keeffe with the landscape of the American Southwest, this picture book explores the time she spent in Hawaii. Commissioned by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company to paint two works that "promote the delights of pineapple juice," O'Keeffe quickly struck out on her own, traveling throughout the Hawaiian islands. "She painted a nana honua that she'd picked by the side of the road. It reminded Georgia of her favorite desert flower, the jimsonweed." Morales's milky acrylic and digital artwork positions the spirited artist against the glowing colors of Hawaii's lush tropics. O'Keeffe had created more than a dozen paintings by the time she returned home to New York City--but none of them are of a pineapple, so "They were not happy. They wanted a pineapple! Georgia was not happy either. She was not going to be told what to paint." A rich and unexpected depiction of a treasured artist. Agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Illustrator's agent: Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. Ages 6-9. (Feb.)