Who Was Michelangelo?

Who Was Michelangelo? is a biography written for young readers and Penguin Random House places the age of the intended readers between 8 to 12 years old (n.d.).

This book is more or less a book of facts about the real life artist, Michelangelo and forgoes the traditional narrative but records the events of his life from childhood to his time painting for the Catholic Church, in particular being commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. he would go on to sculpt many important pieces and he would be remembered through those works far after his death.

Again, my justification for selecting this book doesn't come from it being on any list but rather the popularity of the book series published by WhoHQ. Working in a library beside a elementary school, many students use these books for projects and early level research and they are a great source of information for young readers by selecting the key moments of a persons life without bombarding readers with too much complex information. In that regard, Who Was Michelangelo? accomplishes what it set out to do and I believe to be a good early resource for historical information for kids.

For this book I will be examining style and language, theme and accuracy.

Style and language is very important when writing a biography. You don't want your reader confused by all the facts and they need to properly understand the events of the persons life to where they can easily recite who the person was after reading it. This is especially true for young readers which this book is written for. Thankfully, Who Was Michelangelo? accomplishes this very well. Here is a great example of how the book provides important details of the artist's life while still making it fun to read: "After only a few months of work, Michelangelo's worst fears about painting the fresco came true: Mold began to grow on the part he had completed. He told Pope Julius II that it was ruined and that had warned the pope thae he could not do this. Pope Julius II sent a well-known architect to look at it. he found that Michelangelo had been using the wrong plaster mix!" This paragraph sets up a problem and develops it into a very joking matter with the use of the exclamation at the end. It's a surprising fact. This is just one small example of how they style of this story makes learning about a historical figure fun, entertaining and easy to read for young readers.

Theme is as important in a fiction novel as it is with nonfiction. Every story ever told its about something and Michelangelo's story makes it simple with the title itself, Who Was Michelangelo? But more importantly it tells us how Michelangelo create so many great works that he is forever immortalized by his creations. Michelangelo might be gone, but his art lives on and that's why we still remember him.

Lastly, we'll look at accuracy. It's very important that a biography stick to the truth even if it's aimed at younger readers. Thankfully, Who Was Michelangelo? provides readers withe reputable information via the bibiliography seen in the back of the book. Most information was taken from scholarly sources to bring the life of Michelangelo to younger readers. It might strip down details to make it understandable to younger readers, but it still gives a general impression of the man's life and work.

References

Anderson, K. (2022). Who was michelangelo?. Penguin Workshop.

Penguin Random House. (n.d.). Who was michelangelo?. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/538705/who-was-michelangelo-by-kirsten-anderson-illustrated-by-gregory-copeland/