Gaining Perspective: LOVE by Sophia by Jim Averbeck

"TODAY'S ASSIGNMENT--DRAW SOMETHING YOU LOVE," SAID MS. PARADIGM.

SOPHIE KNEW JUST WHAT SHE WANTED TO DRAW!

But when she's finished, it's NOT what she wanted! Not at all!

ART IS HARD!

Sophies tries again and again, but something is missing.

Ms. Paradign suggests perspective. She explains tha perspective can mean your personal point of view, but on a flat surface in art it is a way of scaling a drawing so that things that are in the distance are smaller and things up close look bigger. Sophie tries looking up at Noodles, her giraffe, and sees that when he stands up tall his ossicones look small, but when he bends his neck down close to her, his horns look bigger and bigger.

"WE SAY YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE," MS. PARADIGM SAYS.

Sophie works hard on her painting until she thinks it's just perfect. She names her work "LOVE" and can't wait to take it home and mount it on their refrigerator. Their refrigerator is special.

IT WAS THE GUGGENHEIM, THE LOUVRE MUSEUM, OF REFRIGERATORS!

But not only that! Their refrigerator is new, so new that there's not a single dimple of a dent, not a vestige of a scratch, nor a smudge of tape adhesive to mar its magnificent surface. To take a place on that door, her art had to pass a tough selection committee--her mother, a judge, her Uncle Conrad, a politician, her father, a businessman,--and Gran-mama' herself, chief curator of the kitchen fridge-door gallery, a place which brooks no fingerprints.

"THAT'S CENSORSHIP!" PLEADS SOPHIA.

"THAT'S STAINLESS." RULES MOTHER.

Dad declares that abstract art often suffers loss of value. Sophie says LOVE has no price, but Uncle Conrad says avant garde art is not stable in free markets and advocates adding wholesome carrots to influence public well-being. And when it comes to fine art, Gran-mama' is a purist:

"ART? A SIX-YEAR-OLD COULD HAVE DONE THIS!"

Poor Sophie refrains from pointing out that she IS a six-year-old! Will she ever see her marvelous work of art on display?

Art, it seems, is in the perspective of the beholder, in Jim Averbeck's latest in his Sophie series, Love by Sophia (The Sophia Books) (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020). This new one is a clever story of art for art's sake which brings back his indomitable character and her improbable pet, Noodles the giraffe, along with his proactive protagonist's loving but opinionated family in a story that considers both artistic and personal perspective. Illustrated with the now-familiar rather abstract style of Jasmin Ismael, this new picture book also offers an appendix in which perspective in art is described and demonstrated and a glossary of some of Sophie's big words--censorship, ossicones, abstract and avant garde in art, and public sector, to name a few. Share this one with Averbeck's One Word from Sophia (The Sophia Books) (see my review here).

The Heart of Art! Pete the Cat--Crayons Rock! by Kimberly and James Dean

PETE IS GLAD!

There's nothing more groovy than a brand-new box of crayons--the spotless wrappers, the pointy points, that smell of newness!

"THIS ONE IS FINE, BUT IT FEELS LIKE SOMETHING IS MISSING FROM MINE!"

PETE IS SAD.

Pete loves to draw. It's his thing! But now, if his drawings are not the best in art class, Pete has lost his zest. Everyone else's work seems so much better. But his art teacher has a different perspective.

"IT'S NO BIG DEAL! ART IS ABOUT HOW IT MAKES YOU FEEL!"

Hey, it's all good! Pete gets to work on his best drawing of all. And his friends get together with him on the school bus.

THE BEST ART COMES FROM THE HEART!

In their latest for the primary grade set, Kimberly and James Dean's Pete the Cat: Crayons Rock! (Harper, 2020), offers a way to play down the pressure and build the joy of the experience for young artists, stressing the personal pleasures of creation over class competition. "It's all good," as Pete is fond of saying, and the fun of artwork is in the different ways each one sees things. A good addition to the library and art room shelves, and as a gift book, it is a good addition with a big box of new crayons.

Malfunction!! Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure by Linda Sue Park

Gurple's eyes opened, one by one by one. Her head swiveled as she clanked to her feet. PREEN! WHERE ARE YOU?

Robots Gurple and Preen have certainly suffered a major spacecraft disaster--crashed on a mystery planet with nothing in sight but boxes of crayons!

But their reactions could not be more different.

Gurple goes deep six. It's a catastrophe. In her anxiety she vents her anxiety by breaking crayons in half--with unexpected results. A blue-checked tablecloth appears! What is Gurple supposed to do with that!

"ZAP MY APPS! THE PODS! WE'RE DOOMED WITHOUT THEM!"

But the resourceful little robot Preen sets about restoring their spaceship with whatever is available. She tears the tablecloth into strips and starts tying the crayons into bundles. And when Gurple breaks a brown crayon in frustration and a flock of quails emerge, Preen puts them to work ferrying the crayon bundles to the wrecked spaceship. A broken green crayon becomes a lampshade, but...

Gurple finally freaks out when she breaks a white crayon and it turns into a roll of toilet paper!

ROBOTS DON'T GO TO THE BATHROOM! SHE SHOUTS.

And when a black crayon becomes a panda, Preen finds a way to use them all to jerry-rig a working spacecraft.

"NODES AND CODES!" CRIES GURPLE. "PLEASE LET THIS WORK!"

A cadre of crayoned kid commandoes appears to finish the job, and there is a successful liftoff. Mission accomplished! The Commander asks Preen how she made this ingenious repair.

“STEP BY STEP BY STEP!” SHE SAYS.

And whose hand is behind all this crayoned deep space drama?

The final page reveals the author of this fantastic space opera, a creative young girl in her bedroom, hopefully sky-gazing toward the full moon in her window, in the Newberry-winning author Linda Sue Park's latest picture book, Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure (Simon & Schuster, 2020). In a salute to the inventive mind, but also to the frugal "use what you've got" wisdom, this fanciful toy story is a treat for young space robot fans. With the noted Debbie Ridpath Ohi's playful and inspired illustrations along for the flight, it's a storybook space voyage to remember. A clever nod to imagination and ingenuity." says Booklist.

The Adventures of an Artist! Here Comes Lolo by Niki Daly

Friday was always the day of the Star Awards.

Lolo has a red star for neat writing, and a blue star for clean hands, but she is a girl with higher aspirations. She hopes today will be the day she gets the Gold Star for reading. She finds it hard to concentrate all day, but at the end of the day at "Free Time," she loses track of time, reading book after book and adding them to her list. Suddenly it's Awards Time, and Mrs. McKenzie praises her for reading so many books and puts a Gold Star on her forehead!

Lolo is so proud that she runs all the way home, excited to show off her Gold Star to Mama and Grandma Gogo.

But when she gets home and points proudly to her forehead, there's nothing there!

Gogo and Lolo go back to look for it, but at the stall where she stopped for a donut, the owner's little girl Sharifa is wearing it on her forehead and protests so loudly that Lolo lets her keep the star.

Mama gives Lolo a kiss for being such an understanding big girl, and at bedtime Gogo has a hair clip with a big golden star for Lolo.

Lola's love for art pays off the next week when her friend Makalima buys the hat Lolo wanted, but suddenly agrees to swap the real hat for a portrait of her wearing the hat painted by Lolo. And when Lolo finds a lost engagement ring, she designs a standout Lost and Found poster, and a young woman named Belinda  calls with the description of her lost ring, and gratefully invites Lolo to come to her art classes every Saturday for free. She even invites Lolo, Mama, and Gogo to her wedding.

And when Lolo spots a mistreated and starving old dog tied in a neighbor's backyard, Belinda notifies Animal Rescue to take the dog to the shelter. She soon adopts the dog and names her "Hope," and brings her every Saturday morning to her art class.

And Hope always goes to Lolo first.

Niki Daly's upbeat beginning chapter book about budding artist Lolo, Here Comes Lolo (LOLO (1)) (Catalyst Press, 2019) introduces an aspiring and artistic young protagonist who makes good things happen around her. Lolo puts her art skills to work to help herself and others, and this first chapter book about the enterprising Lolo earns a gold star for author-illustrator Daly. Daly's second book about Lolo is Hooray for Lolo (Lolo (2))

Pencil Me In! Linus, The Little Yellow Pencil by Scott Magoon

THE FAMILY ART SHOW WAS COMING UP, AND ONLY THE ART WITH THE MOST HEART WOULD WIN THE GRAND PRIZE.

Linus, the little yellow pencil, feels on the spot. This year everyone is expecting an entry from him.
But even though Linus is a sharp little guy, he does not work alone. There's a problem with his co-creator, his eraser, Ernie! In fact, when they are working it seems as if he and Ernie just aren't even on the same page!

"YOU CAN'T EVEN DRAW A STICK FIGURE," SAYS ERNIE.

RUBBA-DUBBA-RUBB WENT ERNIE, AND LINUS'S LINE WAS GONE!

Talk about a co-worker who rubs you the wrong way! Ernie the Eraser is keeping Linus' inspirations on the dull side!

And then Linus gets some good advice from a old guy named Smudge, who's clearly been around a while and who seems to know his stuff. He suggests that Linus and Ernie share the job, taking turns and concentrating on the end product, in Scott Magoon's latest, Linus The Little Yellow Pencil (Disney Hyperion, 2019). Magoon continues his mania for puns in this one, and youngsters who appreciate wordplay will relish the tasty double entendres Magoon tosses into his text in this heart-y tale of self worth. Says Booklist, "The narrative is packed with art-related puns ("bristling with envy"; "brush aside"; "drawn to the very edge"; "Go, get that lead out"), and the digitally created illustrations are filled with movement and color."

Quiet! Genius at Work! Hum and Swish by Matt Myers

Jamie and the sea are friends. Jamie hums. The waves squish.

Jamie collects shells, assorted flotsam and jetsam, even castoff plastic straws and a bottle cap. She wants to make something, but making takes thinking--and solitude.

A couple, walking their dog, come by, smile, and ask her what she's making. Jamie doesn't look up, but says softly that she doesn't know yet.

A man walks by, crouching to peer at her sand structure. Jamie doesn't look up.

"Aren't you clever?" he says, jovially.

"I don't know," Jamie says.

Another passerby says her shell people are pretty. Two bikinied teen girls tell her she's cute and flash a phone photo. A toddler scowls at her shell pony and stick girl, and Jamie scowls protectively back. Her parents come by with sunscreen and a juice box and more questions. Jamie just hums and keeps on working.

The sea tells stories, but it doesn't ask questions.

At last a lady comes by and in companionable silence sets up an easel and a folding stool and table with paints. Jamie watches. Finally she has to ask the lady what she's making. The lady, absorbed in her canvas, replies that she can't say--yet.

Jamie hums. The woman swishes her paintbrush in a jar.

It's not the product, but the process that matters, in Matt Myer's stunningly illustrated beach story, Hum and Swish (Neal Porter/Holiday House Books, 2019), in which art gets done in its own time. Jamie's dark, wind-tossed curls, the golden sand, and the gentle blue-green wavelets portray a halcyon seaside, beautifully done in Myer's layered acrylic and oil paintings which make the eye want to linger a little longer on that lovely summer shore. Myers relents at last and reveals the two completed works, and there's a sense of satisfaction for young readers, but the concept that the joy is in the experience of the creation is the gentle prevailing theme of this picture book.

It's hard to read this book without thinking of sharing it with Caldecott artist David Wiesner's  classic beach story, Flotsam(Clarion, 2006) (see review here).

The Bridge Between! Drawn Together by Min Le and Dan Santat

When a determinedly cheerful mom drops her son off after school at the doorstep of a small house, the boy clearly is not happy. He trudges dutifully up to the door, his backpack heavy on his shoulders and his eyes downcast, and rings the bell.

He's met by an old man, his grandfather, but there are no greetings exchanged. The grandfather bows, his hands together in salutation, and the boy returns the gesture glumly. They seem to know no words in common.

The grandfather turns on the television, but the boy gets little out of the drama, aside from the presence of a dragon in the story. Bored, the boy pulls some colored pencils and paper out of his backpack and begins to draw a spirited young wizard with a wand and powers to vanquish a dragon. The grandfather suddenly smiles and leaves the room, returning with a sketch book, a tiny brush, and an inkwell.

Taking a seat beside the boy he draws a marvelous ancient Asian sorcerer who dispatches the dragon with a broadsword. The boy's eyes are alight as he draws his wizard by the side of his grandfather's sorcerer. Together they create a magnificent magical story.

All the things we could never say come pouring out....

Art is the medium which bridges the gap of age and language between the two as each realize what they share together, in Min Le's wordless Drawn Together (Hyperion, 2018). Inside the unspoken narrative, artist Dan Santat works his visual magic in illustrations that show the two relatives doing their favorite thing together, as both realize that they do indeed share the bond of kinship and a love of art. It is a beautiful story of family love and generational connection, with artist Santat making the most of the opportunity to show off his versatile talents in two different styles, in a book that can be "read" by all ages. A beautiful book that speaks volumes about the ties that bind grandfathers and grandsons.

Says Publishers Weekly "Santat's work dazzles with layers of color, exquisitely worked tradional designs, and ambitious scale. With the grandfather drawing in his idom and the boy in his, the two defeat the dragon of difference that separates them."

Plan B? What If... by Samantha Berger

With paper and pencil, I write and draw art to create my stories that come from my heart.

But what if one day that pencil disappeared? I'd fold up the paper till stories appeared.

No paper for origami? There is wood to be carved. No wood? There are found objects all around. Colored leaves and flowers can be shaped into designs or fantastic shapes--perhaps even a fire-breathing dragon!

But what if there is no light to make the colors bloom?

I would still have my voice!

There are still stories to tell and songs to sing, and without a voice, there is still a world inside the mind to shape ideas--which is where it all begins in the first place.

Samantha Berger's What If... (Little, Brown and Company, 2018) celebrates all the ways there are to create, set off with the gorgeous art of Mike Curato, whose abstract design and swirling colors illustrate the way people embellish their world with art, poetry, music, and story.

Ancient pottery shards tell the same story. What did their makers have? Mud! How did they decorate their work? With thumbprints and fingernails! That they bothered to embellish a simple bowl tells us that the urge to create, to put our mark on our environment, to make a pot out of a puddle and a symphony out of silence is part of being human. That's just how we roll!

Language arts, music and art teachers will love this book and use it to encourage students to make something--even out of nothing. After all, that's the fun of it! Says Publisher's Weekly, "Curato's collaged and found-object illustrations meet the creative challenges that (Berger's) text all but demands with moments of giddy inventiveness."

Curb Your Enthusiam! Lola Dutch by Kenneth Wright

THIS IS LOLA DUTCH.

LOLA DUTCH IS A LITTLE BIT MUCH.

Lola wakes up for the day with more ideas than she has daylight! But first, Bear points out, he needs a modest bite of breakfast.

... TEA AND TOAST?

Oh, no. Lola Dutch will settle for nothing less than a grandiose brunch. There's a rococo pot of hot cocoa with marshmallows, down-home grits and gravy for Gator, posh pastries for Pig, lacy crepes for Crane, and whipped cream for... whatever!

Does Lola overdo it? Yes! Even her cleanup with suds and mop is over the top!

Then she's off for the day's adventures. The library is just one of her stops. While Pig picks inventors and Crane cruises among the great writers, Lola Dutch discovers that she loves the Mona Lisa of Da Vinci and the water lilies of Monet, and all those other great paintings. She's got to stock up on art books and hurry home to create her own versions of the famed works of the Masters. With canvases prepped by Crane, pots of paint and bunches of brushes provided by Bear and Gator, Lola paints Michelangelo's Creation of Adam on her own ceiling.

VOILA!

BEAR SMILED. "LOLA DUTCH, YOU ARE JUST TOO MUCH!"

But even at the end of the day, bedtime is a big deal for Lola, in Kenneth Wright's tale of an over-the-top moppet, Lola Dutch (Bloomsbury Press, 2018). Some energetic youngsters don't know where to stop with their enthusiasms, and Lola Dutch is an object lesson in too much of a good thing, all handled with good-natured hyperbole by author Kenneth Wright. His partner in extravagant excess, artist Sarah Jane Wright, thoughtfully provides Lola Dutch with a sizable cleanup crew when too much disorder develops in her wake. After all, even Lola has to throw in the towel and call for a little help from her friends. With a lighthearted and lovely lesson is taking on too much, young readers will delight in Lola's joie de vive and all it brings, illustrated with elan' and a tasteful touch of art history. As Publishers Weekly says, "Sarah Jane Wright's gouache and watercolor pictures bring a chic elegance to each page."

Seeing: The Artist and Me by Shane Peacock

In the beautiful countryside in southern France near the town of Arles long ago, I did an ugly thing.

Into a provincial village in south France comes a strange figure, a self-proclaimed painter who can't sell one picture, an "artist" whose images look nothing like the scenes the townspeople see him creating on canvas.

This small boy joins the others in harassing the town crazy guy with the wild red hair and the persistent scowl.

His dream, he told anyone who would listen, was to tell the truth by painting pictures.

He painted awful pictures.

The colors are all mismatched and garish, and the people and flowers and skies he painted didn't look right, The pictures were not pretty like paintings are supposed to be. Everybody agreed they were ugly.

Small boys followed the man on his rounds, hooting and laughing. The boy threw stones at his window. He joined the others in calling the man a fool, saying it louder than anyone, the way cowards do when they are safe as a part of a crowd.

But the boy is curious about the crazy guy. One day he secretly follows him outside town and into a field with tall grasses that keep him hidden. The artist seats himself and begins to paint the scene before them in his own way, and the boy creeps closer to sneak a look at the canvas.

The sky was blue, but boiling with violet. The wheat field shimmered like gold. Everything didn't seem as it should. Or maybe it did.

Then he stops and the man turned around to face the child. The boy freezes. But the man reaches out and offers the boy his painting.

"Take it," he said kindly.

The boy is terrified and filled with shame at his behavior and turns and runs away.

But that's not the end of the story. Many years later, when he is old and his own grandson is a small boy beside him, he sees a painting, a now-famous painting, on the wall of a Paris museum, a painting of a wheat field that is considered a priceless masterpiece of art.

"Much madness is divinest sense..." said Emily Dickinson, and that is the theme revealed in Shane Peacock's The Artist and Me (OwlKids Books, 2016), in which the author uses a small boy as narrator to reveal the contradictions in the life of Vincent Van Gogh, his alternate take on reality, seen as mere craziness by the townspeople of Arles. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and sometimes it takes a special eye to see the world in a new way. With a clear but understated lesson on cruelty to those who march to a different drummer, who see a different version of the truth, this picture book not only offers the essence of the life story of Vincent Van Gogh but offers young readers a way to gain the understanding that others can have different versions of truth who can teach us something beyond our own take on the world.

The story is told simply through the eyes of a child, and the accompanying faux naif style of artwork reinforces the theme well. And as Kirkus Reviews says, "Peacock's wonderfully paced, poetic text evidences strong evidence of the power of the page turn and how it can masterfully scaffold the storyline."  This is a first purchase for school libraries who want to support their own art program, one of those biographies of famous artists that speaks directly to the mind of the child.

Eye of the Beholder: The Jellybeans and the Big Art Adventure by Laura Numeroff

Bitsy loved to paint.

She painted at breakfast.

She even painted while bowling.

Bitsy has the most artistic bowling ball in the alley, and her friends Emma, Anna, and Nicole share her passion for personal pursuits, if not for paint and palette per se. Anna loves literature; Nicole lives for soccer, and Emma's heart beats for ballet.

Still, the girls' devotion to their own activity has given them an appreciation for each other's special interest. Anna's love of the library has taught them all an appreciation of scholarship; Nicole's knack for soccer led them all to have a ball at summer camp, and Emma's passion for the pas de bourree has encouraged all four of them to star in a double pas de deux in dance class. So when Bitsy cajoles them into a visit to the local art museum and acts as their personal douen, the others get what Bitsy sees in those modern and old masters.

It's no surprise then when the girls repair to their favorite sweet shop for a pick-me-up and learn of the upcoming redecoration of their favorite bistro, Mrs. Petunia Dinkley-Sneezer's jellybean emporium, the others pitch her artistic abilities enthusiastically.

"Bitsy can paint anything!" said Nicole.

"Perfect! said Mrs. Dinkley-Sneezer.

But this is no little still life painting for the shop wall. The proprietor has bigger works in mind as she leads the artist and her retinue outside and points to the whole side of the building.

"Bitsy, this is where I would like you to create something special!"

At first a canvas of that size appeals to Bitsy, but soon reality sets in. That's a lot of wall, and it calls for a grand vision and a scale of execution that is a bit intimidating even to Bitsy. Is this how Da Vinci felt when he looked at the Sistine Chapel?

"WHAT am I going to paint?" she wondered.

She stood in front of the wall all afternoon.

But with the Jellybeans it's all for one and one for all, and with her friends' help, we just know that Bitsy is up to the job in Laura Numeroff's latest in her series, The Jellybeans and the Big Art Adventure (Abrams, 2012). Author Numeroff and notable illustrator Lynn Munsinger give the fourth Jellybean girl a chance to show that she, too, can shine as she does her own thing with color and style.

In this junior version of "chick lit," Numeroff and Munsinger show again that girl power comes from both personal talent and the support of good friends. And, in a nod to the art world, as Publishers Weekly points out, in the illustrations for this book the award-winning Munsinger artfully uses this chance "to work in some clever visual references to Degas and Rodin."

The previous titles in this popular series include The Jellybeans and the Big Dance, The Jellybeans and the Big Book Bonanza, and The Jellybeans and the Big Camp Kickoff.

Just Another Walk in the Park: Chalk by Bill Thomson

Lover of literary language as I am, this is one stunningly illustrated story which needs no words.

Three youngsters, sharing an umbrella, head into the park, desperate for some outdoor diversion on what has obviously been a drippy day. The wet sidewalks reflect their rain-geared figures as they approach the first piece of climbing equipment, a bright green dinosaur. But unaccountably, there is a pristine gift bag hanging from his fanged mouth, embellished with stars and crescent moons, and inside, a collection of fresh colored sidewalk chalks.

The little pig-tailed girl can't resist and grabbing a bright yellow chalk, draws on the sidewalk just what the three restless kids want to see--the sun. Suddenly the sky is a preternatural blue and the park is flooded with sunshine. Out of the bag comes a peach-colored chalk and the next child draws butterflies all around the sun. And amazingly, one wing at a time, the Monarchs pull themselves away from the concrete and take wing all around the bedazzled kids.

Then the crew-cut boy impetuously pushes forward, and grabbing a piece of green chalk, boldly sketches a dinosaur, fangs and all.

OOOPS!

Suddenly an all-too-real T. Rex is towering over the three, looking nothing but hungry. The kids flee to the questionable shelter of a curvy slide tower. The little artist cringes inside the opening of the slide as the dinosaur bends over and leers up at him greedily. This is more reality than the three little artists ever dreamed of!

Not to worry. There is a potential solution to their situation already foreshadowed in Bill Thomson's amazing Chalk (Marshall Cavendish, 2010). In an entry into the magical realism genre, Thomson's wonderfully realistic acrylic and colored pencil drawings, detailing even the individual hairs on his subjects' heads, rival those of David Weisner in his Caldecott Award-winning Flotsam. Moreover, unlike Weisner, Thomson's illustrations remain purely realistic, heightening the drama of this wordless tour de force. The children's body language and facial expressions, alternatively delighted and horrified, are likewise just what the situation would evoke, and the resourceful boy's solution to their confrontation with his carnivorous creation is both a witty and a peculiarly logical one, a satisfying surprise ending that will leave reader-viewers not frightened, but amused and empowered, reassured that they, too, can take charge of their own imaginations whenever they choose.

In Chalk Thomson takes the premise of Harold and the Purple Crayon (Purple Crayon Books) to a new level, making superb use of light, color, and perspective in a masterful bit of non-verbal storytelling that needs to be seen to be appreciated and that surely merits all the attention it gets.

Art for Art's Sake: Art & Max by David Wiesner

HEY, ART! THAT'S GREAT!

THE NAME IS ARTHUR.

I CAN PAINT, TOO, ARTHUR.

YOU, MAX? OH, ALL RIGHT. JUST DON'T GET IN THE WAY.

WHAT SHOULD I PAINT?

WELL, YOU COULD PAINT ME.

Little green Max is drawn to art by its colors and shapes, a would-be apprentice to the supercilious and somewhat solipsistic Arthur, who fancies himself the old master of classic realism. But little Max takes the invitation at face value, gleefully sloshing blue, yellow, orange, and purple acrylic paint all over the outraged Art.

OH, MAX... WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

Max is nothing if not resourceful. He obediently brings a hose to blast the paint off of Art, leaving him wet, a pastel ghost of his former self. Max then brings a fan to dry Art out, and as he does the paint cracks, and falls away, like a shedding of his reptilian skin, leaving his Art a pale watercolor remnant of his former self.

Discombobulated, Art confesses to feeling rather washed out, and the ever-helpful little Max offers him a restorative drink of water. But as it goes down, the color washes out of him totally, leaving nothing of Art but a black-line outline. Flustered, little Max grabs Art's tail and shakes him vigorously--and the mistreated Arthur unravels and collapses into a pile of black, kinky yarn around the mystified Max's feet. The would-be artist's apprentice is left with nothing but the basics of art (and Art)--the line.

It's figuratively back to the drawing board for the aspiring artist, as Max tries to replicate Art's form, with several hitches along the way. His first try looks like a crayoned Kindergarten attempt at sketching a horned toad.

MORE DETAIL, I THINK.

Gradually, Max's skills progress, until a reasonable facsimile of the original Art stands before him in outline form.

HOW'S THAT?

ACCEPTABLE, I SUPPOSE, BUT DON'T FORGET MY FOOT.

But little Max soon grows weary of reapplying the color with the traditional artist's brush and finally resorts to vacuuming up his spilled paint and reversing the flow so that Art is doused with a colorful spray that gives his skin a definitely pointillistic treatment. Amazingly, Art is amused and intrigued with the effect.

FASCINATING!

Three-time Caldecott Award winner David Wiesner's work never fails to stretch the limits of the picture book medium. Moving from the ocean setting of his award-winning Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book), in his new Art & Max (Clarion, 2010), he turns to the dry and neutral shades of the desert as the background for his canvas as he explores the media of color in the creative process. Despite the rather cerebral nature of his theme, Wiesner's genius for creating character and humor in his characters' faces make this a delightful story for the young. Max is a joyful youngster who approaches art with a childlike freshness that emphasizes the fun of exploring its media. Art teachers will also find this story intriguing, as in all of Wiesner's work, it explores the art of really seeing the world with fresh eyes, wide open. A funny tale of two reptiles and an art lesson--all in one!

Wiesner here narrates the trailer for his newest book in explanation of his own thinking about the creative process.