Sandy's Circus

A Story About Alexander Calder

Illustrated by Boris Kulikov
Look inside
Hardcover
$18.99 US
On sale Sep 04, 2008 | 40 Pages | 978-0-670-06268-3
As a boy, Alexander ?Sandy? Calder was always fiddling with odds and ends, making objects for friends. When he got older and became an artist, his fiddling led him to create wire sculptures. One day, Sandy made a lion. Next came a lion cage. Before he knew it, he had an entire circus and was traveling between Paris and New York performing a brand-new kind of art for amazed audiences.

This is the story of Sandy?s Circus, as told by Tanya Lee Stone with Boris Kulikov?s spectacular and innovative illustrations. Calder?s original circus is on permanent display at the Whitney Museum in New York City.

  • WINNER
    School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
I love my job. There, I said it. I mean, who wouldn’t? I get to go to work in my pajamas, eat cold pizza for breakfast if I want, and make up stories all day. And hey, if I’m watching a movie or reading a book, that’s not goofing off–that’s called research.

All right, it’s true, there is a lot more to it than that. I work hard. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. To get paid for doing what you absolutely love–that’s success in my book. I’ve been writing stories since I was seven years old. Some of them were even published–in the school newspaper. Hey, that counts! I went to a performing arts high school and studied theater and music. Then I moved to Ohio to attend Oberlin College, where I got my degree in English and studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

After college, I hit Manhattan and got my first job as an editor. I thought it would be so glamorous! It wasn’t. But I did learn a lot of really important things, like how to write contracts, file in an organized fashion, walk not run, check facts, not use office time to talk to my boyfriend, secure photo permissions–you get the idea. Soon, though, I was reading and editing manuscripts. Now that was cool. I was an editor for more than a dozen years, before I moved away from the city to a place where there were more cows than editors.

So, I went back to my roots and I started writing again. I think it worked out pretty well. I hope you do, too. Oh, and if you want to know some quirky things about me, I made a list.

5 Things I Hate

Fois gras
The word “tasty”
Driving slow
Small talk
Small mindedness

5 Things I Love

Chocolate-covered pretzels
Singing in the rain
Marathon movie-watching on a rainy day
Broadway musicals
Springer spaniels View titles by Tanya Lee Stone

About

As a boy, Alexander ?Sandy? Calder was always fiddling with odds and ends, making objects for friends. When he got older and became an artist, his fiddling led him to create wire sculptures. One day, Sandy made a lion. Next came a lion cage. Before he knew it, he had an entire circus and was traveling between Paris and New York performing a brand-new kind of art for amazed audiences.

This is the story of Sandy?s Circus, as told by Tanya Lee Stone with Boris Kulikov?s spectacular and innovative illustrations. Calder?s original circus is on permanent display at the Whitney Museum in New York City.

Awards

  • WINNER
    School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Author

I love my job. There, I said it. I mean, who wouldn’t? I get to go to work in my pajamas, eat cold pizza for breakfast if I want, and make up stories all day. And hey, if I’m watching a movie or reading a book, that’s not goofing off–that’s called research.

All right, it’s true, there is a lot more to it than that. I work hard. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. To get paid for doing what you absolutely love–that’s success in my book. I’ve been writing stories since I was seven years old. Some of them were even published–in the school newspaper. Hey, that counts! I went to a performing arts high school and studied theater and music. Then I moved to Ohio to attend Oberlin College, where I got my degree in English and studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

After college, I hit Manhattan and got my first job as an editor. I thought it would be so glamorous! It wasn’t. But I did learn a lot of really important things, like how to write contracts, file in an organized fashion, walk not run, check facts, not use office time to talk to my boyfriend, secure photo permissions–you get the idea. Soon, though, I was reading and editing manuscripts. Now that was cool. I was an editor for more than a dozen years, before I moved away from the city to a place where there were more cows than editors.

So, I went back to my roots and I started writing again. I think it worked out pretty well. I hope you do, too. Oh, and if you want to know some quirky things about me, I made a list.

5 Things I Hate

Fois gras
The word “tasty”
Driving slow
Small talk
Small mindedness

5 Things I Love

Chocolate-covered pretzels
Singing in the rain
Marathon movie-watching on a rainy day
Broadway musicals
Springer spaniels View titles by Tanya Lee Stone