Richie's Picks: ART & MAX by David Wiesner, Clarion, October 2010, 40p.,
ISBN: 978-0-618-75663-6
"When that fat old sun in the sky is falling,
Summer evening birds are calling
Children's laughter in my ears
The last sunlight disappears
And if you see, don't make a sound
Pick your feet up off the ground
And if you hear as the warm night falls
The silver sound from a time so strange
Sing to me
Sing to me"
-- David Gilmour, 1970
I've always found that any interactive educational process, when it is
working, is a two-way street. The teacher evolves through teaching just as
the student grows through learning. The artistic teen with whom I shared
this groundbreaking picturebook believes it is even more generally the case
that we are all constantly changing through interaction with everyone with
whom we come in contact.
"I can paint too, Arthur!"
David Wiesner begins ART & MAX, a tale of two reptilian artists and the
transformative power of art, by paying a visual homage to some of his
adolescent inspirations: George Herriman, Pete Townsend, and Pink Floyd. Being
someone with a lot of happy, long-lived memories from 1970 -- age fifteen for
me, fourteen for Wiesner -- I am dying to know what the other three
stacked-up record albums he's depicted are. In fact, I've emailed some old
friends to see if they could figure out the fifth one in the stack from the
distinctive pattern on its spine. Nobody knows and now they are all waiting
for the answer, too. (This is just like being back in high school, sitting
around, deciphering album covers...)
"'Arthur? What should I paint?'
"'Well...you could paint me.'
"'You? Really?'
Arthur is the master artist and Max is the rambunctious beginner. In
playing the role of the wiseguy -- taking Arthur literally and proceeding to
cover him with paint -- Max instigates a journey through the exploration of
artistic media. When Max covers Arthur with the paint, Arthur's fury
causes the layer of paint to crack and then shatter, leaving Arthur depicted in
a layer of pastels. Then Max points a fan in his direction, blowing away
the pastels to reveal Arthur depicted in watercolors. Next, Max plies
Arthur with water, which washes out the watercolors to reveal Arthur depicted as
a line drawing. Grabbing Arthur's tail, Max unwinds what is left of
Arthur and ends up with a jumble of thread-like line from which he then needs to
reconstruct his mentor. Arthur, of course, will never be the same again.
"His eyes are the eyes that transmit all they know
Sparkle warm crystalline glances to show
That he is your leader and he is your guide
On the amazing journey together you'll ride"
-- Pete Townsend (1969)
It is almost scary to see the extent of David Wiesner's magic through
which he pushes the envelope book after book. Upon savoring that magic in ART
& MAX for a while, one can just imagine some fourteen year-old aspiring
artist getting his or her hands on this amazing journey of a picturebook and
never again being the same.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/middle_school_lit/)
Moderator _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EcolIt/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EcolIt/)
_http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php_
(http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php)
FTC NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he
will Pick their books. You can figure that any review was written after
reading and dog-earring a free copy received. Richie retains these review
copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his booktalks at schools
and libraries.
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