Multicultural

Lily Brown's Paintings

By: Angela Johnson

Illustrated by: E. B. Lewis

Orchard Books Publishing Company 2007

32 Pages

Multicultural

 I chose this book because of the beautiful pictures within. I love how the illustrator uses such magnificent colors to tell the story just as good as the words tell the story. This book is about a little girl named Lily Brown who paints the world around her. When she paints the world comes alive in a new and wonderful way. When she paints the trees they come alive wearing hats and bowing to her as she walks by. When she paints the sun it turns into stars that fall beside her as she flies. It is a beautifully written story.

     The illustrator, Lewis, paints vibrant pictures with watercolors to capture Lily in a realistic style. Lewis uses the watercolors to paint the trees and fruits in a completely different style. He makes them look very charismatic and very artistic. I love the vibrant colors and the way the illustrations radiate such energy!

     This would be appropriate for a child in preschool to about the third grade. I love that this is a book that can cover a wide range of ages appropriately. This would be a great book to use in character education. The students could paint their own pictures and relate the painting back to how the character acts and feels. This would also be a great book to use in language arts in an older classroom. Students could use the book like a writing prompt and write a paragraph telling of something they would paint and what the painting would do as if it were alive just like in the story. Would the trees bow to them, would the fruit come alive? Another activity related to this book would be great to use with an art activity which would get the students really thinking out side of the box! How were the colors made? How did the illustrator make such beautiful and vivid colors to make this book? Those would be some great questions for the readers to think about! Although the illustrator has won many awards for his work this book has no awards to mention.