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CAROLINE LEE
a book bubble about
Maxzyne Meets the Mannequins
Children's Books
Author Insight
Street Art
There really is an Esmeralda. This person intrigued me so much I just had to write her character into Maxzyne's first adventure. She is an artistic and schizophrenic homeless woman, somehow managing to live on the downtown Chicago streets. I first noticed her regal posture, beautiful dark complexion and glassy eyes staring from within her hooded cloak. She usually stood on the street corner, offering her simple paintings for sale to oblivious EL commuters during rush hour. I spotted her waving the thick white pages with their ragged edges, most of them scrawled with slashes of black, purple or red paint. I often saw her in Staples, using the pens, clips, scissors and other detritus discarded by previous customers. I still have one of her paintings in a drawer somewhere. When I asked her name, she answered, "Prophet".
Book Excerpt
Maxzyne Meets the Mannequins
The woman nods, fanning out the stack in her hands. There are paintings of Elise by herself and others showing her with Aloin and Veronique. There are sketches of pigeons, the accordion musician, even the Tina Turner look-alike street performer in her black fringed dress and shiny gold heels. Finally, there’s a sketch of the tiny fountain on Garland Court, the building Maxzyne lives in, showing a homeless man washing his shirt. Esmeralda nods proudly, before returning the dog-eared paintings to her suitcase. Then she pulls an artist’s sketchbook and a small box of colored pastels out of another compartment.
“Hey, I’ve got some just like that!” Maxzyne says, pointing to them. “Mother got them for me at Blick’s art store down the street.”
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