Blood Water Paint
by Joy McCullough; read by Xe Sands
High School    Listening Library
3 CDs    3.87 hrs.    978-1-9848-2899-6    $15.00

In her youth, Artemisia Gentileschi, the renowned Italian Baroque painter, assisted her painter father, Orazio Gentileschi, while struggling to achieve her own artistic vision. Artemisia’s mother told her the biblical stories of Judith and Susanna, “tales of women no one else would think to tell,” inspiring Artemisia to paint these figures from a woman’s perspective. Susanna and Judith come to life in Artemisia’s imagination, coaxing her to “paint the blood” — or tell the truth about being raped by her tutor. Sands delivers an emotional performance that balances anguish with rage and artistic self-expression.

From the July/August 2019 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.