Paper Son by Julie Leung illustrated by Chris Sasaki

 

Full title: Paper Son: The inspiring story of Tyrus Wong, immigrant and artist.

Take a look at these images from Bambi (Disney films).

"Bambi became a groundbreaking film. Audiences and critics gushed about the art - how it communicated so much by showing so little, how you could almost smell the mossy green of the woods and hear the rushing water of the brook. But in the end, Tyrus was credited only as a background artist."

One of my most favourite discoveries in recent years is the wealth of picture book biographies for young readers. Yes, they are written about famous and familiar people but the best ones allow readers to discover someone unknown.  I knew nothing about the art in Bambi or the artist who did this fabulous work. 

Tyrus Wong travelled to America from China when he was just nine years old. Tyrus arrived in the US at the time of a Federal law called the Chinese Exclusion Act. Tyrus had to change his name and memorise the contents of his forged identity papers. His real name was Wong Geng Yeo but he became Look Tai Yow and then later when he started school in Sacramento he was given a new name - Tyrus Wong. Tyrus excelled at art and so his father, who worked in very lowly jobs, saved enough money to send Tyrus to the Otis art institute. Tyrus did not abandon his Chinese heritage. He studied art from the Song Dynasty and he learned "mountains could look in the distance with a few jagged lines." 

Tyrus eventually found a job at the Disney studio but he worked as an in-betweener which meant the tedious painting of the same scene over and over with only tiny changes. Tyrus heard the studio were making Bambi and he saw a wonderful opportunity. He painted soft watercolour landscape scenes. Walt Disney loved them. Sadly Tyrus was not credited for his work but he never stopped painting - ceramics, silk scarves, murals and menus. He died in 2016 aged 106! In his later years he loved to make kites and you can see images of bright kits on the end papers of this book. Read more here. 

Here is a splendid video of the whole book. I was happy to see this presenter included the end papers and beautiful title page. This book was the winner of the American Library Association's 2021 Asian/Pacific American Award for Best Picture Book! Chris Sasaki is the perfect illustrator for this book. Here are some other books by Julie Leung.

I found another picture book about Tyrus: