Art for Art's Sake: Draw! by Raul Colon

What if a regular kid, lying across his bed with a pen and a fresh drawing pad, were on a safari on the plains of Africa?

What would he see? What could he draw?

Himself, in pith helmet, carrying his easel across the dry, sandy earth? An elephant, apparently eager to pose for a portrait?

Would there be picturesque zebras to portray? Maybe tawny, lordly lions? Perhaps a happy hippo mudbathing?

Would there be a waiting water buffalo, big and still?

And... What if there were a charging rhino?

Yikes! This could be serious.

Will the boy run for safety behind a tree? Maybe. But what if there is a lazy leopard lying in that tree already?

Drawing can be hazardous to your health!

Raul Colon's Draw! (Simon and Schuster, 2014) is a trip!--a wordless picture book which celebrates animal art while providing a little African adventure, a sort of series of safari selfies done as terrific paintings instead of iPhone pictures.

It's a different sort of show-and-tell for this young artist which will give youngsters some ideas about what they can draw, with Colon's fine line and watercolor paintings of the wild life of the great African plains.