In many ways this story is about friendship and what happens when creativity is given the freedom to fly. This is not a story about artistic talent, although clearly the award winning author/illustrator has that in spades. Max, an enthusiastic young painter, is eager to show his slightly grumpy friend Art, oh excuse me – ArtHUR, what he can do. Had he believed that art is just for kids we wouldn’t be able to imagine him in his studio having a good laugh as the idea for this beautiful book came to life.Īs the story of Art & Max begins we see that the fate of many school children described above almost befalls Max. Had he been discouraged from expressing himself through art we wouldn’t have been given his adventurous tale of Art & Max. Thank goodness that didn’t happen to David Wiesner. The kids just looked around to see if anybody in the class would admit to what they’d now learned was deviant behavior. And by sixth grade, not a single hand went up. In third grade, only a few children held up their hands. In second-grade classes, about three-fourths of the kids raised their hands, though less eagerly. In kindergarten and first-grade classes, every kid thrust a hand in the air. The responses always followed the same pattern. In A Whole New Mind Daniel Pink writes about a significant question posed to school children: “How many artists are there in the room?” I’d like to begin with a quote from another author. Although this is really a review of the children’s book Art & Max by David Wiesner please indulge me for a moment.
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