THAT'S HOW IT IS WHEN WE DRAW

by Ruth Lercher Bornstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 18, 1997

A young artist experiences different moods as she draws monsters, people, flowers, and forest creatures. On the opening page, our young illustrator is talking on the phone, apparently to a friend who wants to join her in a day of drawing, so they can be ""alone together."" Children may be confused, looking for this friend in human form, for it turns out to be the muse-like mouse character with wings that impishly cavorts across the pages. Two rambling poems--or one long poem with two headlines, ""WITH JUST ONE PENCIL"" and ""WARNING!""--comprise the text, about a girl who surprises herself by drawing whatever comes to mind--beautiful bugs, her own hand, a ""bad times"" drawing in which she scribbles everyone away, or the splashy lines of a rainbow. The believably childlike drawings exuberantly celebrate the creative process of a pint-sized artist thankfully not confined to rigid directions or staying within the lines. They burst with color and ""Flowers stretching out . . ./Fish, growing to the corners,/Frogs, blooming past the edges""--in other words, the limitless possibilities of the imagination, where insects wave good-bye and a blob of brown becomes a friendly old gentleman reaching out of the page with a rose.

Pub Date: Aug. 18, 1997

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clarion

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1997

Categories: CHILDREN'S