The Art Lesson (1989)

     In The  Art  Lesson, we learn that Tomie dePaola needed to advocate for himself in school. Before he entered kindergarten, young Tommy aspires to be an artist. “He drew pictures everywhere he went.” His family honors his drawings by displaying them at home and at work. Grandma Fall River puts one in a  frame  alongside special family photos. But school is different.

    Kindergarten doesn’t have an art  teacher. When his first-grade teacher distributes small boxes of crayons, she says not to “break them, peel off the paper, or wear down the points”! So Tommy eagerly anticipates his first art  lesson with the school art teacher. But wait—the art teacher instructs the class to copy her drawings. “Copy? COPY?” Tommy must speak up. His talent and skill require special  consideration.

     I love how the pictures and text in this book complement each other. Story details are first implied and then revealed several pages later. My personal favorite is the realization that Tommy’s many drawings have colors only possible using the eight crayons in a  regular box. He doesn’t receive a box of 64 colors from his family until first grade.

 

This story is read aloud on Learn With Me Mrs. Sullivan.

My Picture Book Talk for this story is here. 

This lesson is read aloud on my YouTube channel.