Anonymouse

Move over, Banksy--there's a new single-name, never-seen street artist in town. His tag is Anonymouse, and his work, executed in pink spray paint, has a very particular audience in mind: the animals trying to eke out an existence in an often hostile urban landscape. Pirolli's (I Hate My Cats ) poetic digital artwork shows how Anonymouse turns a cluster of rooftop satellite dishes into large pink blossoms, attracting the admiration of birds and pollinators; paints targets on the bases of lamp posts to tickle the canine community's funny bones; and offers pointed jabs at humans, spray-painting tall leafy shadows onto a wall to mourn two felled trees whose absence denies a home to squirrels. Anonymouse eventually moves on, and "the art faded, became obscured or disappeared completely," writes VanSickle (Teddy Bear of the Year)--but his art's affirmation of the animals' lives isn't forgotten. The animals "looked at the city in a whole new way" and take up his artistic mantle. It's a thoroughly original fable about art's revitalizing power, and the capacity of all living things to yearn for and create joy. Ages 3--7. (Feb.)

If Banksy drew a picture book, it probably wouldn't look like this tale of a mouse graffiti artist. The pictures in this story are just as funny and mysterious as Banksy's street art, but they're more jokey and less obviously political. The anonymous mouse who gives the book its title will paint a bullseye on a lamppost, so dogs can aim at it, or an image of Batman in his boxer shorts. Some of the murals are sweet or wistful, like a field of flowers painted on an array of satellite dishes. They have a huge influence on the other animals in the story. Suddenly, a spider is weaving a web in rainbow colors, and a bird is leaving a path of green footprints across the park. Pirolli's illustrations of the animals are as funny and mysterious as the works of art. The spider's eight eyes are so frightening they're sort of lovable. The humans who appear in the background, in muted colors, come from a variety of races and cultures. The end of the story is both sweet and wistful: Anonymouse leaves the city and its animals on their own, with no explanation, except for one line of text from the author: "The world is his canvas." Readers may also be left feeling a bit melancholy, but they'll want to make the world their canvas. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 86.3% of actual size.) Banksy might be flattered by this book, but he probably wouldn't admit it in public. (Picture book. 4-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.