This is one of the last books on my Newbery list. It is a biography of Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo. Vincent and Theo grew up in an small rural town in Denmark. Their uncle was an art dealer, and Theo moved into that field as an adult. Vincent tried a variety of professions before focusing on art in his early 30's. He was manic depressive. When he was on his high he would paint furiously all day and even when he crashed, he would paint to console himself. Theo supported him financially and emotionally throughout his adult life and when Vincent committed suicide, Theo's health, never robust, declined. Theo died a short time after his brother. It is a very engrossing story and Heiligman tells it well with short chapters and an economy of words written in vivid present tense. The book has a few color plates of the art work discussed, but I wish they had included more. I found myself stopping and looking up specific referenced paintings on google images. This was a great book about brotherly love and the struggles of mental illness, but it absolutely is not a children's book. Our library has it in the teen section, but it isn't a teen book either. It is an adult book. I hope it doesn't win the Newbery. I don't want there to be a precedence of adult books being chosen as Newbery winners. (454 p. 2017)
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