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Summary
Summary
"This amusing picture book encourages imagination and individuality." -- Booklist
From the acclaimed author and illustrator of The Big Umbrella comes a delightful celebration of creativity and gumption about a girl and her panda that's Calvin and Hobbes meets If You Give a Mouse a Cookie !
Sometimes when they say to draw a perfect circle, mine turn out a little wonky.
I can draw a perfect fluffy cloud, a perfect scoop of ice cream, and a perfect flat tire.
So when I draw a panda, I keep drawing more and more not-perfect circles until I see a panda.
Then I step back and think, Does it need something else? He probably needs a hat, and then he is my panda.
When a girl draws a panda, it comes to life and helps her embrace her own creativity and unique way of seeing the world.
Author Notes
Amy June Bates has illustrated books including the Sam the Man series; Sweet Dreams and That's What I'd Do , both by singer-songwriter Jewel; and Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan. She is the author-illustrator of The Big Umbrella , about which Booklist raved, "A boundlessly inclusive spirit...This open-ended picture book creates a natural springboard for discussion." She lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with her husband and three children.
Reviews (3)
Horn Book Review
In this celebration of imagination, creativity, and friendship, a girl's chalk-drawn panda leaps off her wall, and together they doodle their way through various adventures. Before the panda makes an appearance, the child is frustrated because "sometimes when they say to draw a perfect circle, mine turns out a little wonky." She draws more and more nonperfect circles until the panda emerges from the apparent scribbles. Like the girl, the panda "draws his own way." When instructed to "draw something pretty," Panda draws "something pretty silly." Asked to draw "a perfect pirate, superhero, crocodile, mad scientist, or princess," Panda "prefers to draw an imperfect, super heroic, madly scientific, piratical princess crocodile." With each new directive, the innovative pair draws something radical, creative, and unexpected. In illustrations rendered in watercolor, gouache, pastel, and colored pencil, the child's and panda's textured and flowy drawings pop against backgrounds that resemble a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard; perspective and sizing shifts reflect the pair's spontaneous creative energy. On the last spread, the girl contentedly colors in a blank book not far from a giant stuffed panda sitting in the corner of her room, leaving readers to wonder and surmise. The endpapers provide some step-by-step drawings. The unexpected creativity and adventure that spring from "coloring outside the lines," as it were, will resonate with free spirts (and maybe even some perfectionists). Emmie Stuart November/December 2020 p.66(c) Copyright 2020. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A child and an imaginary panda draw together in this picture book. The unnamed narrator, a young child with dark hair and light skin, loves to draw. When the child draws a panda and then a hat for the panda to wear, "he is my panda," and he goes on to respond to instructions from an unseen "they" by applying his own vision to what they've asked for. Clearly the panda is a stand-in for the imagination of the child. Unfortunately, a repetitive point/counterpoint expressed in various iterations of "when they say to draw a perfect… / my panda prefers to draw an imperfect…" becomes a one-note push for the inspiration and fulfillment found in drawing without rules or expectations. And the murky nature of who "they" are--overbearing parents? teachers?--makes for an uncomfortable divisiveness. While the illustrations are loose and flow-y, as befits a story about unhampered creativity, the viewpoint of each double-page spread stagnates: Readers look straight on at panda, child, and blackboard with no change in perspective, and only occasionally does the viewpoint move closer or farther away. The type occasionally leaves its ordered structure, but that's just not enough to give the overall story any real animation or originality. Readers may be encouraged to draw without expectation of perfection--the point of the story--but the us-versus-them aspect is off-putting. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 22% of actual size.) Sadly, uninspiring. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A girl narrates as she draws on a chalkboard wall in her room. She admits that when people tell her to make a perfect circle, it comes out "a little wonky." And so, when drawing a panda, she scrawls masses of imperfect, overlapping loops until an undeniably panda-like figure emerges. Like Blackboard Bear in Martha Alexander's long-running picture-book series, Panda steps down from the chalkboard and enters the child's world. He becomes her ally in creative rebellion: "If they tell him to draw something pretty, he draws something pretty silly." His playful spirit frees her to draw more intuitively. While the front endpapers offer step-by-step instructions for eight "perfect" drawing projects, such as "the perfect circle" and "the perfect panda," the back endpapers feature the same projects overlaid with the girl's drawings. Written in a conversational tone, the narrative captures the child's satisfaction in making art her own way. The illustrations, created with colored pencil, watercolor, gouache, and pastel, express the spirit of the story beautifully. This amusing picture book encourages imagination and individuality.
