"Drawing On Walls: A Story of Keith Haring is gorgeous and deeply inspiring...this large padded hardcover book is beautifully constructed and illustrated with a thoughtfully told story." -Inclusive Storytime "Never taking its eye off of what matters, Drawing On Walls justifies its very existence by justifying the very existence of its subject...to choose Josh Cochran for this particular project was nothing short of inspired. While the colors pop and the lines are big and black and thick, it's almost as much fun to watch the design at work (scribbles spilling over a book's gutter to start to fill the other side) as the art itself. Drawing On Walls is the kind of book that you wish other writers of children's nonfiction would read." -School Library Journal "Having previously composed Enormous Smallness - the wondrous picture-book biography of E.E. Cummings, another artist who so passionately believed that "it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are" - Burgess was impelled to invite young people into Keith Haring's singular art and the large heart from which it sprang. And so Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring (public library) was born - a splendid addition to the most inspiring picture-book biographies of cultural heroes. Burgess's tender words, harmonized by muralist and illustrator Josh Cochran's ebullient art, follow the young Keith from his childhood in small-town Pennsylvania, drawing at the kitchen table with his dad and dipping his little sister's palms in paint to make her a mobile of handprints, to his improbable path to New York City." -Brain Pickings DRAWING ON WALLS is a tender and beautifully written biography of Haring's short life. Matthew Burgess, the book's talented writer, set out to tell Haring's tale without embellishment, sugarcoating or regret. The result is a joyful celebration of Haring's world. -The New York Times "Bright and bold as Keith Haring's art, this book follows the artist's ever-energetic creative drive. Author Burgess and illustrator Cochran show how generous a person he was, and how children played a central part in his life and work." -The Wall Street Journal "Thirty years after Keith Haring's death of AIDS-related complications, this vibrant picture book brings the iconic pop artist's work and story to the hearts of a new generation. Often featuring a bold black line, Cochran's painterly illustrations drive the narrative-bursting with movement and color-utilizing a wide variety of perspectives and both spot and full-bleed illustrations to dance around the text in a suitably neo-expressionist tribute to the subject. Stylized and simplified figures fill the pages with smiling faces in a broad spectrum of skin tones and body types, opening the door on Haring's passionately held belief that "Art is for everybody." Without erasing or dwelling on any particular aspect of Haring's personal life, author Burgess outlines Haring's relationships with art, with children, and with his partner, Juan DuBose, in straightforward, accessible language-from his childhood in Pennsylvania to his "final mark" in Pisa, Italy (five months before his death)-with the same bold honesty and vibrance visible in his subject's art career. Biographical, author's, and illustrator's notes back up the book, supplementing the broad strokes of the text with finer detail and more individual perspectives on Haring's personal, political, and artistic legacies. An inspired, and inspiring, continuation of Haring's intention." -Kirkus