Self-Portrait With Seven Fingers — Jane Yolen

To do something with seven fingers is a Yiddish expression meaning to do something well or adroitly. Marc Chagall was a Russian Jew and a wandering dreamer. From his humble hometown of Vitebsk, Belarus, he went out to take in the world the grandeur of St. Petersburg, the romance of Paris, the freedom of New York. Through wars, Nazi persecution, and the passing of nine decades, he found love, pioneered techniques in modernism, and painted. Above all, he painted. Fourteen of Chagall s works are here vividly reproduced and accompanied by the poems of notable children s writers J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen in this colorful celebration of a most remarkable artist.