Children’s Literature

Hill’s terse but emotionally evocative, poetic text describes the work of an enslaved potter in the 1800s. Known only as Dave, he not only created about forty thousand pots up to forty gallons in size, but also inscribed brief poems on some of them. We can admire them in museums today. Introducing Dave’s work Hill writes, “To us it is only dirt…” but to Dave it was “…the plain and basic stuff upon which he learned to form a life….” We follow Dave’s carting of the clay to the potter’s wheel, the mixing, wedging, and placement on the wheel. And then: “Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat,” he pulls the shape of a jar across a foldout page. He finishes the jar, makes the glaze, and writes his words upon it. Collier focuses on the creation of the pots, using mostly watercolor paintings with some collage elements. In these powerful naturalistic images, Dave’s creative emotions are clearly evident with a strong sense of the process and the craftsman. Additional facts about Dave’s life are included, along with notes by both author and illustrator, photographs of Dave’s work, and notes on sources. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz