Pencil's Perfect Picture

by Jodi McKay, Juliana Motzko (Illustrator)

Overview

Pencil is trying to draw the perfect picture for his dad. So, he asks his friends Brush, Pastel, Marker, Crayon, and Chalk what makes their art perfect. But they each have a different answer. How will Pencil be able to create his own perfect picture?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807564745
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	05/01/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
Lexile:	AD520L (what's this?)
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Jodi McKay lives in Michigan, with her husband, son, and a crazy Goldendoodle named Ralph. She’s a proud member of the writing community and is involved in multiple writing groups including SCBWI and 12x12.
Juliana Motzko is a freelance illustrator who has loved drawing and painting since she was a little girl. She is fascinated by animals and enjoys creating cute artwork that touches people’s hearts. Juliana lives in Brazil.

Editorial Reviews

"A sweetly solid story about creating for the pleasure of it and not worrying whether it's good enough."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

06/21/2019

PreS-Gr 1-This book addresses a common anxiety of young children when they are asked to draw and may provide them with some strategies to overcome this concern. In the story, a personified pencil wants to know how to create a "perfect" picture. The pencil approaches a variety of art tools that have just created a picture—including a paint brush, a marker pen, a pastel, a group of crayons, and a piece of chalk—and asks how they manage to create a perfect picture. The tools find the pencil's request surprising, and sometimes silly, and share why they create ("I paint for pleasure," "I draw for peace, not perfection," and "We draw because it's fun!"). The marker pen also mentions that doing your best is most important when drawing. The pencil combines all of their thoughts and strategies to create a picture for a friend, finally realizing that the picture is perfect because it was made for another. The illustrations are simple, colorful, and two-dimensional. VERDICT This book captures a fine message: creating art is rewarding and particularly so when it is created for a friend. On the other hand, the illustrations and the word selection are basic and childlike in their simplicity.-Sally James, South Hillsborough Elementary School, Hillsborough, CA

School Library Journal

2019-03-03

Pencil visits an art school to find out what makes a perfect picture.

Pencil wants to do something special for dad today and decides a perfect picture would be just the thing. However, Pencil doesn't know what makes a picture perfect and so heads off to the art school to find out. There, Pencil questions Brush, who tells Pencil, "I paint for pleasure"; Marker, who says, "Do your best"; Pastel, who draws for "peace, not perfection"; the crayons, because "they really think outside the box"; and Chalk. But the answers given don't satisfy Pencil, who decides to put them all together and just go for it. Pencil's resulting picture is pronounced "perfect" by Pencil's dad, who then reveals to Pencil the secret of a perfect picture. Author McKay's text is often perkily alliterative—great for reading aloud—and is enlivened by small bursts of humor. Illustrator Motzko's animate art utensils are sparely drawn, primarily consisting of rectangles with stick arms and legs and black outlines for faces, but they are all satisfyingly expressive. The book's overall visual look, however, is a tad less satisfying, since straight lines predominate in both the individual objects depicted and in the layout, which gives it a somewhat regimented feel—at odds, perhaps, with a story about creativity.

A sweetly solid story about creating for the pleasure of it and not worrying whether it's good enough. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews