In Her Hands: The Story of Sculptor Augusta Savage Book

2009 Parents' Choice Recommended winner

Children's Literature

Sculptor Augusta Savage (1892—1962) is not so well known as she deserves to be. Born into a poor African-American family in Florida, Augusta loved to model animals in clay; her father, a stern preacher, did not approve. Encouraged by her mother and a prize at the county fair, Augusta traveled to New York to study sculpture. Not much is known of her life, but Schroeder and Bereal have imagined details to add to the meager facts available: Savage was accepted at Cooper Union's school of art, studied in Paris, and came back to Harlem to model busts of W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, a jaunty Harlem gamin, and her triumph, The Harp—a sixteen-foot work for the New York World's Fair. (Composed of singing children in graduated sizes, this sculpture finally brought her limited fame.) Savage opened a studio in Harlem where all were welcome, especially children, and became a mentor to artists like Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, though much of her own work has disappeared. Augusta's story is made vivid with imagined scenes dramatizing her early life up to her intense joy (accented by a sunrise-orange dress) at being accepted by Cooper Union. Bereal's evocative stylized paintings with their dense textures and glowing greens, blues, and browns, emphasize the strength and determination of this talented sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance in her struggles for recognition. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft