With art supplies in tow, a young boy explores the urban forest near his
home, then interprets what he sees with his art. The boy is a keen
observer who uses poetic, rhythmic language to describe the diversity he
finds through all four seasons. His forest is both "fluffy" and
"prickly," "dense" and "sparse," "crispy" and "soft." It's also
"scattered and soggy, and spotted and foggy." His forest is made up of
many colors -- but he decides that "mostly it's green." Each aspect of
the forest inspires the boy to create a different kind of art: charcoal
rubbing, rock art, photography, sponge painting, snow sculpture,
cut-paper collage. To this artist, there's always something new to
discover, and to capture!
In this delightful picture book, Darren Lebeuf, an award-winning
photographer, encourages small children to look closer at and appreciate
the nature that surrounds them. And by providing such a broad range of
ideas for artistic expression, it's sure to awaken the nature artist in
every child. Bright, deeply textured illustrations by Ashley Barron
bring the forest and the boy's artworks to vivid life. This story
provides an excellent depiction of nature-based education in an outdoor
classroom. The specificity of the concrete and abstract adjectives used
in the text works as a perfect complement to primary science lessons on
investigating, comparing and identifying the physical characteristics of
plants and animals. This book also makes for an enjoyable, lyrical
read-aloud.
