Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Somewhere in Brooklyn, a little boy dreams of being a famous artist, not knowing that one day he would make himself a king.

Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. However, before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games, in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe’s vivid text and bold artwork, echoing Basquiat’s own style, introduces young readers to the powerful message that art doesn’t always have to be neat or clean—and definitely not inside the lines—to be beautiful.

Author and Illustrator: Javaka Steptoe

• Hardcover
• 48 pages
• 5 × 0.5 × 11.13 in.
• Published by Little, Brown Young Readers US (illustrated edition,October 27, 2016)
• ISBN: 978-0316213882
• Reading level: 6–9 years