Newbery Book #2-Vincent and Theo

Next up: Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman.  I'm not sure why I was surprised, but I was blown away by this book.  I was not expecting to love it like I did.  You guys, I cried like it was going out of style by the end.  Yeah, I knew about Vincent van Gogh, that he was an artist, and that he cut off his ear, but my knowledge stopped there.  Two years ago my sister and I visited Amsterdam for a few days.  We passed on the van Gogh Museum in favor of visiting the neighboring Rijksmuseum.  We'd still see a few pieces by van Gogh as well as the rest of the Dutch Masters.  It took me about ten pages before I wanted to hop back on a plane to Amsterdam and head straight for the Sunflowers.

Like I said, I didn't know much about Vincent van Gogh.  I fell in love with the dependent, tumultuous, yet supportive relationship he shared with his brother Theo.  I learned that he suffered from mental illness in a time when little to nothing was known about mental health.  Like any fantastic piece of nonfiction, this book made me want to learn even more.  The film Loving Vincent​ is at the art theater downtown and I may just have to check it out.