My debut picture book biography, Cut!: How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation, is now available! Matt Schu is the illustrator, and his drawings spectacularly bring Lotte's real-life world of early-1900s art and cinema to life, while also paying tribute to the exquisite use of shadow of light in Lotte's films.
Who was Lotte Reiniger? She was the creator of the oldest surviving full-length animated film, the inventor of an early multiplane camera, and a revolutionary silhouette artist whose influence can still be seen in the works of artists and filmmakers to this day.
Here are two sample pages from Cut!, photographed by Matt Schu, along with reviews for the book.
“With a refrain of ‘snip, snip, snip!’ the story introduces readers to German film pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981). Lotte’s adolescence coincided with the dawn of cinema, a time when movies ‘were silent but filled with magical sights’ . . . Schu’s exquisite digital illustrations possess a strong sense of illumination and depth, often suggesting a tactile quality, as if constructed from paper.”
— Horn Book (starred review)
“Dream-centered text by Winters articulates the labor put in by its subject, making for an informative account of a successful life in the movie business, involving ‘a pair of scissors, a great deal of patience, and her talented hands.’”
— Publishers Weekly
Cut! features extensive backmatter, including a timeline of Lotte Reiniger’s life, an author’s note, and sources.
Please see my Events Page to learn where Matt and I will be signing copies of the book. If you're curious about the various ways I conducted research into Lotte's life, please head to this conversation between Fiona Robinson and me at Publishers Weekly.
Huge thanks to my editor, Martha Mihalick, for giving Cut! a publishing home and for using her editorial skills to make the book shine!
