I recently read another book by this author, Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin, and I saw this one and it looked particularly interesting. I love the subject of art as therapy and art being made as one way to cope with dire circumstances.

I did appreciate the diversity of the artists featured in this book. Chapter 1 called Outsider Art featured 2 artists who had schizophrenia. Chapter 2 called Captured had art by prisoners in modern More...

I was excited to find a book about folk art, outsider art, naive art, prison art, etc. on the shelves of the juvenile nonfiction section here at the library. 98% of the subjects are treated seriously and the stories are all interesting. Using extreme written-out dialect to depict the way slaves speak was a jarring choice, though. I'm not sure if the author was quoting some other text and that's where it came from, but it pulled me out of the text. And learning that this guy who had set up an More...

Not extremely in-depth, but a nice overview of people who have been compelled to create art while insane, imprisoned, or otherwise challenged...I would like to learn more about some of these artists individually now!

A very short but interesting book of outsider art, with short bios and examples of each artist's work.