WHEN I DRAW A PANDA

A child and an imaginary panda draw together in this picture book.

The unnamed narrator, a young child with dark hair and light skin, loves to draw. When the child draws a panda and then a hat for the panda to wear, “he is my panda,” and he goes on to respond to instructions from an unseen “they” by applying his own vision to what they’ve asked for. Clearly the panda is a stand-in for the imagination of the child. Unfortunately, a repetitive point/counterpoint expressed in various iterations of “when they say to draw a perfect… / my panda prefers to draw an imperfect…” becomes a one-note push for the inspiration and fulfillment found in drawing without rules or expectations. And the murky nature of who “they” are—overbearing parents? teachers?—makes for an uncomfortable divisiveness. While the illustrations are loose and flow-y, as befits a story about unhampered creativity, the viewpoint of each double-page spread stagnates: Readers look straight on at panda, child, and blackboard with no change in perspective, and only occasionally does the viewpoint move closer or farther away. The type occasionally leaves its ordered structure, but that’s just not enough to give the overall story any real animation or originality. Readers may be encouraged to draw without expectation of perfection—the point of the story—but the us-versus-them aspect is off-putting. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 22% of actual size.)

Sadly, uninspiring.