A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me

A young girl forms a special connection to the modernist painter Florine Stettheimer, and imagines herself joining in on Florine’s exciting life.

When a young girl visits the museum, she finds an unexpected friend in a self-portrait of Florine Stettheimer. They’re both artists; they both have Jewish families; they even look alike!

Florine’s life was wild and glamorous. She painted people in flight and buildings that grew from the ground like crooked trees, bright colors and shapes and animals. She threw parties frequented by other famous visionaries like Marcel Duchamp and Carl Van Vechten.

Soon, our narrator is dreaming up her own fantastical parties for Florine, with table spreads of colorful treats, and painting and dancing and poetry. With Florine in her life, even a rainy day can’t make the world seem humdrum anymore.

A Party for Florine is an unapologetically whimsical fan letter to an artist whose influence is clear in Sydney Taylor Honoree Yevgenia Nayberg’s captivating illustrations. Dreamers, creators, and budding modernists will be drawn into the young protagonist’s party just as strongly as she is drawn into Stettheimer’s paintings.

Yevgenia Nayberg is an award-winning illustrator, painter, and set and costume designer. She has received multiple awards for her picture book illustrations, including a Sydney Taylor Honor and two notable recognitions. She is the author/illustrator of the picture books Anya’s Secret Society, Typewriter, Mona Lisa In New York, and I Hate Borsch!, and the illustrator of the book Drop by Drop by Jacqueline Jules, among others. Born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, she now lives in New York City.