A Line Can Go Anywhere

The Brilliant, Resilient Life of Artist Ruth Asawa

A TRUE TALE WITH

A CHERRY ON TOP

Roaring Brook Press

(pub. 2.25.2025)

40 pages

Ages 5 - 8

Author: Caroline McAlister

   Illustrator: Jamie Green

Character: Ruth Asawa

Overview:

" Growing up on a dusty farm in Southern California, Ruth Aiko Asawa lived between two worlds. She was Aiko to some and Ruth to others, an invisible line she balanced on every day.

But when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, suddenly she was only Aiko, no matter how much her family tried to cut the lines that connected them to Japan. Like many other Japanese Americans, Ruth and her family were sent to incarceration camps.

At the Santa Anita racetrack, Ruth ran her fingers over the lines of horsehair in the stable stalls the family had moved into. At the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas, she drew what she saw―bayous, guard towers, and the barbed wire that separated her from her old life.

That same barbed wire would inspire Ruth’s art for decades, as she grew into one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Throughout her career, she created enchanting twisting sculptures and curving shapes that connected, divided, and intersected."

Tantalizing taste:

"RUTH AIKO ASAWA

drew her first lines in the dry California dirt.

She watched her lines narrow and widen.

They curved gently like the rounded hills to the east,

like the ocean waves to the west,

and like the fat melons and cabbages

her family grew on their farm...

Ruth's life curved and twisted, looped and doubled back. Lines divided

and met.

Look at how her sculptures curve and curl, with lines that overlap and

intersect, connect and divide. They move in the breeze and cast shadows that

change with the light. Her art is for everyone and for all of time - graceful,

breathtaking, mysterious.

Look and then look again. Do you see

something new? Where do the lines lead?

What do they mean to you?"

And something more: Caroline McAlister in the Author's Note in A Line Can Go Anywhere shares:  "As well as being an artist, Ruth was an activist for arts education... She began a program to bring working artists into public schools... Ruth famously said, 'Sculpture is like farming. If you just keep at it, you can get quite a lot done.'"