Trueman, Matthew

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Trueman, Matthew

Personal

Married; wife's name Anna (a book artist and printmaker). Education: Ringling School of Art and Design, B.F.A. (illustration). Hobbies and other interests: Jogging, food.

Addresses

Home—Alpha, NJ.

Career

Illustrator and graphic artist. Exhibitions: Work included in Society of Illustrators exhibit "Celebrating the Fine Art of Children's Book Illustration," 2003.

Awards, Honors

New York Public Library One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing designation, and Sydney Taylor Honor Book for Younger Readers designation, both 2003, both for When the Chickens Went on Strike; Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People designation, National Council for the Social Studies, 2004.

Illustrator

Erica Silverman, When the Chickens Went on Strike: A Rosh Hashanah Tale (based on a story by Sholom Aleichem), Dutton Children's Book (New York, NY), 2003.

Anne Rockwell, Big George, Silver Whistle (San Diego, CA), 2004.

Lise Lunge-Larsen, Noah's Mittens: The Story of Felt, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

Eric A. Kimmel, A Picture for Marc, Random House (New York, NY), 2007.

Kathryn Lasky, Yossel's Journey, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 2008.

Sidelights

Raised near Venice in northern Italy, Matthew Trueman traveled to the United States to attend art school and graduated from Sarasota, Florida's Ringling School of Art and Design with a B.F.A in illustration. Now making his home in New Jersey, Trueman has established a successful career as a commercial artist, his flat, slightly-off-kilter images prompting many critics to note the influences of painter Marc Chagall. With his work creating illustrations for books such as Erica Silverman's When the Chickens Went on Strike: A Rosh Hashanah Tale, Eric A. Kimmel's A Picture for Marc, and Ann Rockwell's Big George, Trueman has also gained a following among young story-hour fans and their parents.

In When the Chickens Went on Strike Trueman brings to life Silverman's adaptation of a story by well-known nineteenth-century Russian storyteller Sholom Aleichem that focuses on the New Year tradition of Kapores: the ritual of twirling a chicken over a person's head while reciting a prayer freeing them of the weight of the year's misdeeds and indiscretions. Silverman sets her story in a small Russian village, where a young boy worries that no chickens are willing to remain in town long enough to participate in the tradition. Trueman's humorous paintings, "executed in layers of ink, pencil, gouache, acrylic, and oil," mix "modern and folk art," wrote Nancy Palmer in School Library Journal. Describing When the Chickens Went on Strike as a good choice for read-alouds, Booklist contributor Kay Weisman concluded that "Trueman's stylistically inventive mixed-media illustrations … are visually striking" and serve as a good mirror to the story's "understated yet humorous text."

Other books illustrated by Trueman include Big George, a story about the boyhood of U.S. president George Washington, and how the future general had to learn to overcome a fear of conversation. In Noah's Mittens: The Story of Felt, writer Lise Lunge-Larsen adds a practical outcome in retelling a biblical tale about the sheep that traveled with Noah on the ark, while Kimmel's A Picture for Marc returns readers to Russian boy as a young boy—the young Marc Chagall—discovers his love of drawing under the guidance of a supportive teacher. "Trueman's mixed-media illustrations add to the fun" of Larsen's story, wrote School Library Journal contributor Kathy Piehl, and in Booklist Randall Enos concluded of Noah's Mittens that "the story and the artwork, both simple and wonderfully complex, work well on many levels."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2003, Kay Weisman, review of When the Chickens Went on Strike: A Rosh Hashanah Tale, p. 1991; October 15, 2006, Randall Enos, review of Noah's Mittens: The Story of Felt, p. 54.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July, 2003, review of When the Chickens Went on Strike, p. 463; November, 2006, Deborah Stevenson, review of Noah's Mittens, p. 134.

Horn Book, July-August, 2003, Lauren Adams, review of When the Chickens Went on Strike, p. 448.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2003, review of When the Chickens Went on Strike, p. 865; September 1, 2006, review of Noah's Mittens, p. 907.

New York Times Book Review, August 10, 22003, review of When the Chickens Went on Strike, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, August 25, 2003, review of When the Chickens Went on Strike, p. 61; July 31, 2006, review of Noah's Mittens, p. 77.

School Library Journal, September, 2003, Nancy Palmer, review of When the Chickens Went on Strike, p. 191; December, 2006, Kathy Piehl, review of Noah's Mittens, p. 107.