"Imagine you were born before the invention of drawing more than thirty thousand years ago." A boy with shaggy red hair dressed in jeans, his back to the viewer, becomes a boy with shaggy red hair dressed in animal skins on the next page. He lives in a cave with a large multigenerational family and spends his time watching deer and bears and looking at clouds. He alone sees shapes where others see, for instance, just a stone. A stare down with a woolly mammoth pushes the boy to recreate its massive shape on the cave wall. And though his family at first fears the drawing's magic, before long they're drawing, too. An author's note introduces French cave drawings, and notes no one knows who made the world's first drawing. Despite the disclaimer, however, many will see this as fact as well as fancy, in part because of the emphatic audience-directed narrative. The line, acrylic, and coloured-pencil art, which fills up each spread, has the buoyant feeling of discovery and is clever in the way it turns imaginings into pictures. A way to think about the start of art. Grades K-2. --Ilene Cooper
"Imagine you were born before the invention of drawing more than thirty thousand years ago." A boy with shaggy red hair dressed in jeans, his back to the viewer, becomes a boy with shaggy red hair dressed in animal skins on the next page. He lives in a cave with a large multigenerational family and spends his time watching deer and bears and looking at clouds. He alone sees shapes where others see, for instance, just a stone. A stare down with a woolly mammoth pushes the boy to recreate its massive shape on the cave wall. And though his family at first fears the drawing's magic, before long they're drawing, too. An author's note introduces French cave drawings, and notes no one knows who made the world's first drawing. Despite the disclaimer, however, many will see this as fact as well as fancy, in part because of the emphatic audience-directed narrative. The line, acrylic, and coloured-pencil art, which fills up each spread, has the buoyant feeling of discovery and is clever in the way it turns imaginings into pictures. A way to think about the start of art. Grades K-2. --Ilene Cooper
A Caldecott-winning illustrator's inspiring and imaginative story about the invention of drawing, told through the eyes of an 8-year-old boy.
Mordicai Gerstein is the acclaimed illustrator of more than forty-five books, many of which he also wrote. His books are frequently awarded ALA Notable status, and he is the three-time recipient of a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year honor. In 2004, Mordicai was awarded the Caldecott Medal for The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. Mordicai lives in western Massachusetts. His website is www.mordicaigerstein.com.
*"In this compelling picture book, Gerstein invites children to travel back in time more than 30,000 years to a cave in what is now southern France....Gerstein's illustrations of rocks, clouds, and shadows cleverly conceal animal shapes that both readers and the protagonist are compelled to discover." - School Library Journal, starred review*"Gerstein's mixed-media spreads feature a mostly blue and brown palette, and thin, rainbow-hued brushstrokes add texture and vividness....Artists see the world differently, but Gerstein suggests their true gift lies in allowing others to share in their visions." - Publishers Weekly, starred reviewGerstein's acrylic, pen-and-ink and colored-pencil mixed-media illustrations create depth and a sense of the past, as well as imparting liveliness and possibility...Solid storytelling, satisfying narrative circularity, and masterful, creative illustrations make this an inspiring story for young artists. - KirkusThe line, acrylic, and colored-pencil art, which fills up each spread, has the buoyant feeling of discovery and is clever in the way it turns imaginings into pictures. A way to think about the start of art. - Booklist
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