Author Hester Bass brings an obvious fascination with and appreciation for her subject to this elegant narrative about artist Walter Anderson. A prolific artist of the mid-twentieth century, Anderson created paintings, sculptures, and many other works. Bass focuses on time Anderson spent on Horn Island on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He would spend days on his own, observing, writing, drawing, and painting. Captivating details, like when Anderson found bunches of bananas washed up on the shore for seven or eight miles, or the time he rode out a hurricane, punctuate a story set against E. B. Lewis’s lovely watercolor illustrations. A lengthy biographical essay following the story includes photographs of some of Anderson’s work. For Anderson, who struggled with mental illness, solitude in nature was essential to his emotional and psychological well-being. Sadly, parts of his artistic legacy were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. (Ages 7–10)