"If you had lived on Utopia Parkway not so long ago," begins this delightful picture-book biography of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell, "you might have walked past this house," referring to the Queens home of the now famous creator of magical box-collages assembled from found objects. Cornell neither drew nor painted - he made 'Wonderlands' in boxes, filled with "dreams and memories." Employed as a fabric salesman, he created these objects for his own pleasure, and for the children in his neighborhood, whom he considered his primary audience. Eventually word spread of his creations, and other artists and collectors sought him out. Although he achieved great success, Cornell never forgot who his true audience was, and his final exhibition, held in 1972 at the Cooper Union, was created especially for children.

Jeanette Winter, whose other picture-book biographies include such titles as The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps and The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq, here crafts an informative read, one which encourages children to "see" Cornell in his natural habitat, as he went about his work. As an admirer both of Cornell's boxes and Winter's biographies, I was excited to discover Mr. Cornell's Dream Boxes recently, and pleased to find that it lived up to my expectations. Both narrative and artwork are appealing, presenting the story of a man who followed his passion, whether that entailed creating intricate boxes full of objects found around New York City, or keeping journals that eventually totaled more than 30,000 pages. The artwork, with its dark outlines against white pages, in the spread featuring Cornell's house, or its muted purplish blues, used in depicting the various box themes, ably captures its subject matter. All in all, a lovely little biography, one I would recommend to children interested in art or the artistic process. ( )

Lovely tribute to a shadow box artist who lived in Queens, New York. ( )