Review by New York Times Review
THE TROUBLE WITH DRAWING ÍS that it's fun. Almost too much fun. Drawing can become uncontrollable, a force you can barely handle. Children know this and give in; adults knew it once, but forget. For children a notebook for math class can easily transform into a sketchbook for art. Lines, shapes and colors become little masterpieces at the margins of the page. How can one stop? Why should one stop? There's seemingly no choice in the matter. The drawing has to come out. This is the case for a young boy named Ben in "Ben Draws Trouble," the latest picture book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Matt Davies. In this delightful book, Ben goes through the kind of ordeal many grown artists will remember from their own childhoods. He loves to draw everything, everywhere, all the time. He fills up his sketchbook with drawings of bicycles, boats, whales and dinosaurs. It's all very nice, except that Ben does this during class. His teachers are not amused. But like any dedicated artist, Ben can't hold back. We learn that Ben especially loves drawing people, including his teachers and classmates. Yet he keeps their faces hidden in his private sketchbook. No one is allowed to see them. But one day, on his way home, "the unthinkable happened": Ben loses his precious sketchbook. It falls into the hands of the crowd he tried to keep his artwork from. Even his teacher sees it. Is Ben in trouble now? Are his classmates angry? Or will Ben's talents prove to be his path to redemption and recognition? Davies's hilarious cartoon style will please the eye and is bound to put a smile on every reader's face. so will the perfectly rendered childlike drawings in "How to Draw a Dragon," by Douglas Florian. It's not easy for adults to draw just like a child, but Florian does it right, and young artists will relate. We're talking dragons here, and as his pictures show, they come in various shapes and colors. Blue ones, red ones, yellow ones and green ones, large and grumpy ones - what's not to like? Florian assures us that dragons aren't hard to draw, and a child will surely find this out. The instructions explain that dragons' heads can be "rather bumpy," and that they have "pointed spines," which must be drawn with "jagged lines." Some have "spiky tails" or "shiny scales" and "sharpened teeth." We learn that you can draw a dragon while it's playing the violin, or while it's taking you for a ride on a bike, or while you toast marshmallows with its fiery breath. "How to Draw a Dragon" is written in rhymes, which wasn't exactly necessary. Its visual energy will help you free your thoughts and put them down on paper. If you want to find a dragon to draw, this book will have one for you. Better still, you'll learn to draw your own. in "MY PEN," Christopher Myers also encourages the young to let their thoughts roam. Myers, illustrator of several books including the Caldecott Honor book "Harlem," written by his father, Walter Dean Myers, describes that perfect drawing instrument as if it were a magic wand that makes a wondrous world leap from the mind to the page. Myers says he developed the concept for this book after speaking with young people at a juvenile detention center. It's possible they felt trapped or stuck for good. But with imagination and a pen, Myers shows, you can travel to many worlds. The book is narrated by a boy who tells us that he feels "small" when he thinks of rich and famous people, who have much more than he thinks he will ever have. Then the boy remembers something: "I have my pen." And we see what he can do. His pen draws an old man as a giant, then puts him in the "sweet hands of the smallest girl." Thanks to his pen, the boy tap dances in the sky, rides with dinosaurs, hides an elephant in a teacup. These adventures are exquisitely visualized by Myers in black and white. Pen and ink was, of course, the proper medium for this project. Most young readers will understand the concept of this book, though I'm not sure that the very young will grasp some of Myers's jabberwocky, like the touch of the surreal in a two-page spread that has images of the boy catching snowflakes on his tongue and then lacing up sneakers with protruding electronics, with text that reads, "My pen is smart as a snowflake and wears satellite sneakers with computer laces." But in the end Myers's beautiful drawings make their case, and the book will set children's imaginations free. In this day of pixels and sound bites, videos and screens, it's nice to think that children can still enjoy an activity as simple as marking a surface, getting their hands full of ink, putting together a concept or two using old-school materials. Let them draw, even if it's trouble. It's always fun. And that goes for you too, forgetful grown-ups! RAÚL COLÓN has illustrated more than 30 books for children, including "Mama Had a Dancing Heart" and "Draw!,"both of which received New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books Awards.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [May 10, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
Like a more sophisticated Harold and the Purple Crayon, this sparce picture book by celebrated children's book illustrator Myers, depicts whole worlds created by only the pen in the artist's hand. After admitting that he sometimes feels small compared to powerful people, he says, Then I remember I have my pen. From there, he demonstrates how much power his pen gives him. First he draws a giant man in work clothes; then he shrinks that man down to fit in the hand of a girl. A tiny version of the artist rides a huge T. rex, then sails across the ocean in a boat made of folded newspaper. Myers' imaginative and realistic black-ink drawings, each one full of detail and enlivened with crosshatched shading, are scattered over each page, some appearing as ordered compositions while others look like playful doodles. In straightforward lines, Myers mentions his worries, the people he loves, and the realities of failure, depicted in page-covering ink splotches. Imaginative kiddos will appreciate this empowering ode to creativity.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A graceful boy with a fedora and soft curls talks about the power of making art, as finely detailed black-and-white images surround him, like a sketchbook brought to life. Deep in thought, the boy compares himself to people who are rich or famous. "Sometimes I feel small," he confesses. "But then I remember I have my pen." Instead of imagining fortune or celebrity, he pays homage to wisdom and strength, drawing a farmer in overalls who towers over him like a stone monument (and who bears a strong resemblance to the author's late father, Walter Dean Myers). "My pen," he says, "makes giants of old men who have seen better days." His pen creates adventure ("My pen sails to Africa in a newspaper boat") but carries grave concern, too ("My pen worries about all the wars in the world"). Throughout the book, faces-young and old, with dark skin and light skin, with dreadlocks and pigtails-assure readers that this is a book meant for them, as are the freedom, power, and unlimited possibilities that drawing offers: "Let those worlds inside your pen out!" Ages 3-5. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Aurelio is a young artist with big eyes, a fedora, and, most importantly, a vivid imagination. In ink renderings on pages that maintain interest by alternating between black on white and the perception of the reverse, the boy contrasts the sense of being small-evoked when he sees rich and famous people-with the power he wields with his pen. The "Dali" headline on the book jacket's folded newspaper boat foreshadows playful bits of surrealism, e.g., an elephant in a teacup, a man who looms large on the left page in the hand of a small girl on the right. This tender composition has a familial, personal feeling. The versatile drawing instrument worries about war, expresses love, and "wears satellite sneakers with computer laces." Myers intersperses literal depictions of the pen at work (creating the child's face) with images that are described in more fanciful terms. Where the artist is walking upside down (no pen in sight), the text reads: "My pen tap-dances on the sky and draws clouds with its feet." The first-person possessive voice wears a little thin, and the connection among the pages is loose. Nevertheless, Myers has assembled a visually arresting array of sketches that will likely attract the interest of children who enjoy drawing themselves. Indeed, the last sentence is an invitation to "Let those worlds inside your pen out!" VERDICT The striking images and important message outweigh any narrative issues.-Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
There are rich people who own jewels and houses and pieces of the sky / Sometimes I feel small when I see those rich and famous people. But then I remember I have my pen. The pages that follow show the narrators attempts to lift himself up through his art: he creates precise black-and-white drawings of fantastical scenes -- an elephant hiding in a teacup, a chest x-ray that looks like a butterfly, and so on. Every illustration features a child in an oversize fedora (ostensibly the narrator, who presumably represents Myers in his youth) but My Pen is ultimately a democratic effort. There are a million pens in the world / and each one has a million worlds inside it, Myers writes on the second-to-last page before exhorting the reader to let those worlds inside your pen out! While its a truism that making art can lighten a psychic load (My pen worries about all the wars in the world), Myers allows that his hand has its limitations: the illustration beside but it doesnt always get it right shows the boy smacking his forehead in frustration. Its a clear-eyed record of a dreamlike world. nell beram (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A boy describes everything his pen can do, from the literal to the metaphorical.A thoughtful boy wearing a fedora opens with a pensive, poetic assertion. "There are rich people who own jewels and houses and pieces of the sky," there are people who are famous worldwide, and sometimes he feels small in comparison"[b]ut then I remember I have my pen." This extraordinary nib pen hides an elephant in a teacup and X-rays the boy's chest, revealing a butterfly with a pen body. It has tender abilities ("My pen makes giants of old men / who have seen better days") and cryptic qualities ("My pen is smart as a snowflake"). Myers uses nib pen for his excellently skilled, shaded and detailed drawings in black ink on white background. The boy's pen "draws [him] a new face every morning," shown only partially finished. When text says the pen "wears satellite sneakers" or "tap-dances on the sky," illustrations show the boy doing so; when the pen "worries about all the wars in the world," the boy shelters from tanks and warplanes. This pen is the boy's tool but also his heart, self and strength, and maybe it's not so unusual: "There are a million pens in the world / and each one has a million worlds inside it." Highly sophisticated concepts and art invite the long and close examination of older readers. Poignant, vulnerable, wise. (Picture book. 7-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
