Plot Summary
"My pen rides dinosaurs and hides an elephant in a teacup. What can your pen do?" The reader is challenged to pick up a pen and discover what amazing creations are contained within. Myers encourages students not to give up because of their perceived mistakes with the line, "But it doesn't always get it right."
Personal Reaction
This reminds me of a Bugs Bunny episode where Daffy is experiencing unexplained difficulties and finally discovers that it is Bugs who has taken control of the artist's pencil. Both Meyers and Bugs show us the power of the pen in a unique and fun way.
Memorable Literary Element
The message of expressing oneself through art is reiterated on each page with a succinct sentence or phrase, in first person point of view, challenging students to find out what wonders their pens hold.
Illustrations
Christopher Myers's black and white drawings are striking and imaginative. With each page, Meyers surprises the reader with, not only his artistic talent, but with his imagination and creativity, as well.
"My pen rides dinosaurs and hides an elephant in a teacup. What can your pen do?" The reader is challenged to pick up a pen and discover what amazing creations are contained within. Myers encourages students not to give up because of their perceived mistakes with the line, "But it doesn't always get it right."
Personal Reaction
This reminds me of a Bugs Bunny episode where Daffy is experiencing unexplained difficulties and finally discovers that it is Bugs who has taken control of the artist's pencil. Both Meyers and Bugs show us the power of the pen in a unique and fun way.
Memorable Literary Element
The message of expressing oneself through art is reiterated on each page with a succinct sentence or phrase, in first person point of view, challenging students to find out what wonders their pens hold.
Illustrations
Christopher Myers's black and white drawings are striking and imaginative. With each page, Meyers surprises the reader with, not only his artistic talent, but with his imagination and creativity, as well.
Reviews/Awards
School Library Journal —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
School Library Journal —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
Promotion Idea
Art Class - "So if you have a pen, see what you can do -- Let those worlds inside your pen out!" Let the book challenge students to explore their talents with a pen, or pencil.
Display artwork as part of a bulletin board presentation such as one of the examples below.
Art Class - "So if you have a pen, see what you can do -- Let those worlds inside your pen out!" Let the book challenge students to explore their talents with a pen, or pencil.
Display artwork as part of a bulletin board presentation such as one of the examples below.