Silent Days, Silent Dreams
Illustrator
Allen Say
Publisher
Arthur A. Levine Books
Publication Year
2017
ISBN
9780545927611
Pages
64 pages
Genre
biography
Format
full length
Item Type
Nonfiction
Annotation
James Castle was born two months premature on September 25, 1899, on a farm in Garden Valley, Idaho. He was deaf, mute, autistic, and probably dyslexic. He didn't walk until he was four; he would never learn to speak, write, read, or use sign language. Yet, today Castle's artwork hangs in major museums throughout the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art opened "James Castle: A Retrospective" in 2008. The 2013 Venice Biennale included eleven works by Castle in the feature exhibition "The Encyclopedic Palace." And his reputation continues to grow. Caldecott Medal winner Allen Say, author of the acclaimed memoir Drawing from Memory, takes readers through an imagined look at Castle's childhood, allows them to experience his emergence as an artist despite the overwhelming difficulties he faced, and ultimately reveals the triumphs that he would go on to achieve.
Grade Level
6-8; 9-12
Lexile Measure
790L
Diversity Topics
Disability and Health; Physical disability; Developmental disability; deaf; deaf child; mute; mute child; autism; autistic child
Main Character
male baby; male child; adult male
Race/Ethnicities
White
Family Formation
mother and father
Awards
Schneider Family Book Award, 2018, Winner, Young Children
Booklist Book Review Stars, 2017
Kirkus Book Review Stars, 2017
Notable Books for a Global Society, 2018
Notable Children's Books, 2018 Older Readers
Keywords
art; loneliness; Idaho; post office; supplies; hiding; passion; musuem; recognition; self-taught
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Say, Allen, "Silent Days, Silent Dreams" (2017). Diverse Families. 1770.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1770