Before I Grew Up

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

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Physical Properties

Description

Age range 6 to 9

A story of childhood dreams and adventures, and of the parental love that in seeing you, nourishes you to become yourself.

In this picture book, author John Miller (Winston and George) weaves a story about unknown artist Giuliano Cucco from the paintings and sketches that he leaves behind. The pictures illustrating the story were selected from Cuccos vast archive. Through luminescent, emotionally rich images, Miller tells of Cuccos childhood one of familial love and the freedom to dream which carries him into the realisation that one day, he will be an artist.

An innovative picture book that begins with the paintings and leads into story, this book stands as a celebration of the vastness of the human spirit. It is also an ode to childhood and the flowering that is possible when we are cherished.

Reviews

A Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) Best Childrens Book of 2021

Winner of Best Art Award, 2021 Northern Lights Book Awards

A stunning illustrated elegy of life, loss, our search for light, and loneliness as a crucible of creativity. An uncommonly original and tenderhearted celebration of how an artist becomes an artist Miller set out to honor his friend [Cucco] by bringing his story to life traveling back in time on the wings of memory and imagination, to the lush and lonesome childhood in which the artists gift was forged, projecting himself into the boys heart and mind through the grown mans surviving paintings, blurring fact and fancy... In spare, lyrical first-person narrative spoken by the half-real, half-imagined boy becoming an artist, Miller invokes the spirit of Giulianos childhood. Emanating from it is the universal spirit of childhood... From this static scene depicted in one of Cuccos real paintings, from the known facts of his friends life, in the voice of the boy about to be lit up by his creative calling, Millers soaring imagination conjures up a larger poetic truth about what it means to be an artist, about the meaning of love and the measure of enough, about the slender strands of assurance that weave the lifeline of the creative spirit. Maria Popova, The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings)

After hearing about Cuccos death in 2006, Millerwho had previously collaborated with Cucco on two childrens bookslinked a series of Cuccos paintings to tell this first-person story about the artists childhood. Weaving together these heretofore-unconnected oil paintings, many of them deeply atmospheric and enigmatic, this series of impressionsabout Cuccos childhood years, parents, moments in nature, dreams, life in the city before an eventual return to the country, and more are highly textured and richly colored, many showcasing a vivid, sunny yellow. A thought-provoking conversation starter for art lovers of all ages. Kirkus Reviews

Before I Grew Up is a very unusual picture book... It tells the story of the Italian painter Giuliano Cuccos childhood in the first person, but it is written by an old friend of his, John Miller Looking through the late painters archive in Rome, Miller found a group of paintings related to Cuccos childhood. He selected and arranged some of those pictures, complementing them with short, interpretive sentences. The alluring result is the imaginary life of the artist as a young boy, told through a sequence of lyrical scenes Dreams and boats are recurrent themes in the story, as is light This is not an easy book to summarize, and there are a number of fascinating and unexpected situations that are best left to the reader to experience directly. Sergio Ruzzier, writing for theNew York Times

This tribute of a picture book is one that celebrates the creativity of childhood and how allowing unfettered time and space allow that creativity to carry into adulthood. Miller uses his words as a minimal framework to offer a glimpse of the artists life and also to share his work. It is [Cuccos] paintings that truly tell the story, sharing emotions through the art. From darker moments to those filled with inspiration and light. The art is whimsical at times, literal at others A lovely surreal look at an artist, creativity and childhood. Tasha Saecker, Waking Brain Cells

Miller has succeeded in offering a memorial to his friend by telling the story of how creativity is nurtured and developed. The haunting art does the rest of the job, encouraging readers to make up their own stories to go with the arresting images. Thought provoking and surrealistic in some places, evocative and strange in others. New York Journal of Books

Author Bio

John Miller, a nature writer, is the author of two books published by Enchanted Lion, Winston and George and Red Spider Hero. These children's books were illustrated by Giuliano Cucco, a close friend he met while living in Rome. News of Giuliano's death prompted him to link together a number of his friend's many paintings into a story that carries the reader deep into Cucco's rich world of childhood imagination.

Giuliano Cuccowas an Italian artist and illustrator. He and his wife were killed by a motor scooter driver in a pedestrian crossing in Rome in 2006. He is survived by a son and two grandchildren.