PAINTING THE WIND

In this atmospheric mother-daughter collaboration (a debut for the daughter), a young artist works on his technique in the company of the painters who come to his island each summer with their easels, dogs, and families to paint. It’s a debut for Schneider, too, who captures the narrative’s restrained tone with impressionistic, broadly brushed views of dogs, dunes, beaches, the artists—and paintings, each of which is done in a subtly different style. Seeing his own picture of bent-over trees as if for the first time, hanging next to the others at a summer’s-end exhibition, the lad realizes that “on my island, surrounded by water and light, I have done what I could not do before. I have painted the wind.” Along with the likes of Cynthia Rylant’s All I See and Sara Yamaka’s Gift of Driscoll Lipscomb, this bears insights into how artists look at their world, and their work, and will broaden children’s understanding of how and why art is made. (Picture book. 9+)