Horn Book Review
A boy leaves a row house with his skateboard and rides through his neighborhood; readers can almost immediately orient themselves as he crosses the Brooklyn Bridge and arrives at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. From here Colns latest wordless picture book (Draw!, rev. 9/14) becomes a love letter to the experience of visiting an art museum: as the (brown-skinned) boy marvels at Matisses Icarus (identified in an authors note), the cutout figure peels itself from the painting to dance with him, its lithe limbs swaying with movement over the next several pages. Theyre joined by the trio from Picassos Three Musicians, then by the lion and just-awakened woman from Rousseaus The Sleeping Gypsy (these three works all capably mimicked by Coln). Rendered in watercolors and Prismacolor- and lithograph pencils, with his signature stippled and crosshatched textures, Colns illustrations hum with energy and jubilation as the characters cavort through NYC, ride the Coney Island Cyclone, play music in Central Park, etc. The boys new friends return to their canvases, but when he gets back to his neighborhood, he copies their likenesses onto a blank wall, creating a mural, and dreams of them at night. In the appended note, Coln informs readers that he never visited an art museum until he was an adult. Imagine! is his entreaty to expose children to art: Maybe their minds will explode and fireworks will go off and floodgates will openImagine that! katrina Hedeen (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In Coln's newest wordless tribute to creativity, a young child kindles his imagination during an art museum visit. A boy (gendered in the author's note) emerges onto the city street with a skateboard in hand. The young skateboarder drifts through the city and over a bridge, ending up at the Museum of Modern Art. Inside, he surrenders his skateboard at a checkroom and strides into the museum. Similar to his previous reflection on imagination, Draw! (2014), Coln's latest again challenges readers to discover inspiration through ingenious means. Wonder fills the boy's face as he observes the artworks adorning the museum walls, including Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians, Henri Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy, and Henri Matisse's Icarus. When the larger-than-life characters from these paintings break free from the canvas and join him, the boy and his newfound company dance their way out of the museum and onto the streets of New York City. What follows is a series of merry adventures sweeping past familiar landmarks like Times Square and the Statue of Liberty. Inspired by the author's museum experiences, the story leaps off every page thanks to the textured artwork brimming with buoyant body movement and cast in muted colors and striking patterns. It's over all too soon. A few goodbyes back in the museum, and the boy goes on his way, stopping briefly to leave his mark on the city's walls.Beautifully euphoric. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.