★ The illustrations are beautifully done, with attention and care carrying the spirit of North's paintings throughout. . . . This is an impeccably attuned biography of a woman who broke the rules to the benefit of all. --School Library Journal, Starred Review
Lawlor's biography captures both Marianne's spirit and the restrictive norms of the time, which couldn't hold back this daring naturalist. --Booklist
captivating . . . Stadtlander's vibrant watercolor and ink illustrations capture details--gimlet-eyed crocodiles, patterned carpet bags, a crab scuttling over a paint-smeared palette, 'marauding crows' stealing 'glittering tubes of paint'--that conjure the rich peculiarities of North's intrepid and privileged life. --Publishers Weekly
Fascinating and detailed. . . . --The Horn Book
Stadtlander's artwork is intricate and full of detail. She includes almost every shade of green imaginable in her illustrations, which are lush and rich with life both extant and extinct. . . . Plenty of backmatter makes this book an excellent starting point both for further research and to teach children how much work goes into creating a nonfiction book. --Kirkus Reviews
Lawlor follows not only North's adventuring but also her innovative approach to nature painting, which celebrated the riotous colors of her specimens and captured them in their natural context, with attention to atmosphere and well as solid surroundings. Stadtlander's mixed-media paintings strike a similar balance between travels and nature study, and her double-page spread of a Kew gallery affords her young audience a glimpse at how museumgoers experience North's work in her own time and today. Exemplary end matter expands on the importance of North's work and its Kew Gardens home, comments on the editing of North's biography, and includes source notes and a who's who list of luminaries in North's social circle. --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books