Here's an insider's tour of the fascinating lives of Gertrude Stein and her partner, Alice B. Toklas, amusingly addressed directly to the reader ("The next time you go to Paris..."). It explores the couple's art collection, their famous writer and artist friends and even their dog, Basket. It also describes how Gertrude's book The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was not about Alice, but was more about Gertrude herself! A celebration of creativity and the creative process, this original and very readable picture book biography champions two women who dared to live unconventional lives. In playful free verse, author Evie Robillard offers a unique introduction to one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century art and literature. It includes twelve child-friendly quotations from Stein's work, such as: "It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing." Illustrator Rachel Katstaller's fun yet detailed art delightfully evokes the time and place of the text. Touching on literature, history, writing and the visual arts, this biography offers loads of direct curriculum applications. Back matter includes a time line, "snapshots," sources and an author's note with further background. AGES: 6 to 9 AUTHOR: Evie Robillard first traveled to Paris in 2001. Not long after that, she happened upon the film Paris Was a Woman and soon found herself reading book after book written by or about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Evie was delighted to learn the tales of the many American women who were clever and resourceful and bold enough to move to the City of Light in the early twentieth century. Evie is a former children's librarian and writing teacher. She writes for both adults and children. She's the mother of two grown sons and makes her home in Madison, Wisconsin. Rachel Katstaller is a children's book illustrator from El Salvador, a tiny country in the tropics of Central America. She now lives and works in a studio perched in the Austrian Alps, where she daydreams about eating croissants in Paris. Her cat, Hemingway, was named after a famous writer who was once mentored by Gertrude Stein.