Very well done. Always looking for biographies on strong females and this fits. Unique story as well.

Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands is a perfect book for middle school students. It captures May Lin's body of work, not just the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Before I read this book I did not know that she had so many more architectural pieces.

I remeber the controversy surrounding the Vietnam Veteran's memorial. I was fairly young but it was a topic of discussion in my family. I remember my mother believed that it was the perfect memorial for a war that killed so many and hurt so many more.. I could not have said it so well.

In Maya Lin: Thinking with Her Hands I developed a richer understanding of the woman who created so much meaningful art. I learned about her upbrining in a family that treasured art, the dislocation of her parents who longed to go home to China, how much she loved school and loved learning and how, though shy and reserved, she decided to enter the contest to build a memorial for Vietnam Vets. I was stunned by the Vietnam Vets Memorial when I finally had the opportunity to see it in Washinton, D.C. and suprised and moved to learn that she designed so many more beautiful buildings. Honestly, after seeing the pictures in the book I want the opportunity to see all of Maya Lin's work and it is now on my bucket list. Thank you for the wonderful crisp and clear photographs and the rich detail of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Maya Lin
Fittingly, Susan Goldman Rubin titles the chapters of her book Maya Lin with artful substances from nature since the natural world informs her architectural art.
Chapter 1 – Clay describes Maya’s early years in a home of Chinese ancestry with a father who is a ceramicist and a mother who is a poet. Given the chance to do her own modeling with the clay, hearing poetic words, and being surrounded by natural beauty sets a stage early for what she will become.
Chapter 2 – Granite tells the story of her unexpected win by a college student over 1,421 entries to design the Vietnam Memorial. Who would have thought her simple symbolic design would require so much strength on her part to keep that design as she had envisioned or that she would get only a B + for the class?
Chapter 3 – Water gave her a vision of using the biblical quote from the Martin Luther King address on the Civil Rights Memorial “Until Justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream” with water flowing over the quote.
Chapter 4 – Earth took her back to childhood playing with her brother over hills behind their house. She created “Wave Field,” “Flutter,” and “Storm King Wave Field” from that memory experience.
Chapter 5 – Glass kept an old barn in one sculpture and created a skylighted Noah’s ark with another, both with abundant glass to give a feeling of being outdoors in nature.
Chapter 6 – Celadon green from her Chinese heritage was Maya’s choice for the basic color of the Museum of Chinese in America.
Chapter 7 – Dunes and Driftwood became replacements for parking lots as she paid tribute to the paths of Lewis and Clark and the parallel path of the Native Americans to the ocean. She achieved her goal of showing what had been lost and what could be saved.
Chapter 8 – Wood has her only design for a family home. Most of the time, Maya will not do this kind of work. However, she did not abandon her outdoor approach since the house has a tree growing up through the deck and an abundance of windows.

The final chapter sets her philosophy of giving back and thinking about what is missing as society takes over the natural world.

With many beautiful photographs, abundant research, and a gift for story-telling, Susan Goldman Rubin shows the human being along with her artistic achievement and her love of nature. I recommend this fascinating biography of the work of the accomplished architect which is also a Junior Library Guild selection if you would like additional verification.

Maya Lin Thinking With Her Hands by Susan Goldman Rubin is a fantastic, well illustrated biography. The biography talks about different projects of Maya Lin's.

A fantastic biography introducing young readers to the works of Maya Lin beyond the Vietnam Memorial.

This book gave me a list of travel destinations - I'm left wanting to experience all of Ms. Lin's work in person, not just on the page. Interesting intersection of art, architecture, awareness-building and activism.

Very well written biography about someone who created a memorial that many young people are familiar with but do not know the story behind. I also learned about many of the other important projects she has worked on throughout the years.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.
Many know the story of Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial. How she was very young and a surprise choice by many. What you might not know about her is how she continued her career. Many requested her to create memorials but she shied away from those and chose different projects throughout the years including a beautiful library. I learned a lot about Lin in this book and feel that it would be a good read for teen students working on projects and appropriate for adults too. Very interesting and well written.

Maya Lin

Thinking With Her Hands



by Susan Goldman Rubin

Chronicle Books

Children's Nonfiction , Middle Grade

Pub Date 07 Nov 2017

I am voluntarily reviewing Maya Lin through Chronicle Books and Netgalley:

As a child Maya did not dream of becoming an artist, but a veternarian. She and her brother roamed the woods behind there house on Cable Lane in Athens Ohio, where they would sit quietly watching the animals.

Maya Yin Ling was born on October 5,1959, her Father was a Cermatist and her Mother a poet, both of her parents taught at Ohio University. Her parents had been born in China but escaped to the United States during a Civil War in the 1940's. As a child Maya did not think of herself as an Asian American, but as white because she wanted to fit in. It wasn't until later that she embraced her Asian Heritage.

Maya had been a child when the Vietnam war broke out. When planning the Memorial she wanted to o so in a way that created a unity between the nations passed and present.

Maya and her professor were the only one's in their class that submitted their entries for the Memorial. The deadline was March.31.1981 she said it took longer to write the statement than design the Memorial.

On the last day of classes Maya got a call from Washington someone from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial fund wanted to talk to her, out of 1,421 entries her design won the contest. Despite her winning the contest her professor only gave her a B- on the assignment. After she graduated from Yale Maya moved to Washington DC to become a consultant on the project.

After the success of the Vietnam War Memorial Maya was offered other memorials which she refused Neil 1988 when she was asked to help design the Civil Rights Memorial.

Maya Lin is the story of a remarkable woman who has chosen to make a difference through her art.

Five out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

Beautifully done. Easy to follow, lovely and interesting layout, brilliant coverage of a fascinating subject! I've always been interested in Maya Lin, and I loved hearing first hand about her design experiences. Rubin makes the subject matter easy to follow, and I can see myself handing this book to both artistically minded students and those who just enjoy an interesting non-fiction story. Really well done for the middle grade audience!

Most children have seen or heard of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial but few could tell you about the artist who designed it. I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful book about that artist, Maya Lin. The story of The Wall is told in an approachable manner, appropriate for all ages, bringing to life the artist and how she came to be involved in the design contest. I like that the author did not dwell on that achievement of Maya Lin's but weighted it equally with other important and interesting projects she accomplished during her life. I loved the color choices for each of the chapters and lovely photographs. A wonderful addition to any library.

Many know of Maya LIn from her design and implementation of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., but it is the work that has followed that has really defined her artistic impulse. A biography and retrospective of a modern creative genius provides the reader with a first hand glimpse at life's work of LIn as not only a creator of significant memorials but also transforming landscapes and buildings into pieces of art.

An insightful look at the work of architect, artist, and environmentalist Maya Lin. Readers learn how she researches as part of her creative process, how her family background impacts her work, and how her goals guide her creative efforts. Photographs help explain the unique features of Lin's work. Though she is well known for creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she is much, much more than an artist who does memorials. Readers get insight into the purpose and meaning of her art and a look at several of her works, including the Langston Hughes Library and the Box House.

An excellent read and a story that everyone can and should relate to. Bravo for the storytelling and visuals.

What an incredible woman matched by an incredible biography!
Maya describes her childhood as one where she didn't quite fit in with other students and was lonely, a description with which, perhaps, many readers will identify. Her parents who left China and emigrated to the US were artistic and creative, perfect people to emulate which is exactly what she did..
Her accomplishments range from the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Langston Hughes Library and the Museum of Chinese in America. Readers will be mightily impressed with Lin's talent. She can not help but be an inspiration to all!!

Easy to digest and visually appealing, this biography on the well known, but reserved Maya Lin will cater to both children and adults.

Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands is thoroughly researched, with quotes from Lin herself, photos, and design sketches.

One thing I particularly liked was how each chapter was related to a certain medium in design and architecture and work of Lin's.

This biography also touches upon various issues of American history and Lin's own emphasis on environmentalism and our relationship with the world around us. The biography itself touches upon civic activism, American history, and the hurdles Maya Lin has faced.

Well researched and filled with photographs, Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands will be a great addition to a classroom and school library and be a welcome sight for budding designers, architects, and builders.

This small tome, just over 100 pages, offers us a glimpse into Lin's life, her most famous comissions, and her creative process.

This is a beautiful book targeting middle school children interested in architecture but also potentially sculptural work or design ethos. Lin's rapid rise to prominence, while still an architecture student at Yale, after her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial won the memorial's design competition sets the stage for recounting her remarkable career as one of America's best known architects of the past 50 years. Lin's work possesses a subtlety and large-scale sculptural quality but also an eloquence informed by history. The silent but powerful presence of her designs is one of the reasons her firm's work has been sought out and even pursued, especially by underrepresented minorities.

I would note that while GoodReads is currently listing this book as having 300+ pages, the volume I received to review was a heavily illustrated 110+ pages. The photos and drawings of Lin's designs add to the book's overall quality. I feel it's important to note that at the length I received, this book could easily be understood by precocious, artistically inclined children under age 11.