The Magical Life of Mr. Renny (Gecko Press Titles) - Hardcover

Timmers, Leo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1877579203 ISBN 13: 9781877579202

Publisher: Gecko Pr, 2012

Synopsis

When he is unable to sell his paintings and has no money for food, Mr. Renny meets a man who is able to make his paintings come to life.

About this title

About the Author

Leo Timmers is one of Belgium's preeminent picture book authors, with a large and loyal following. Trained in graphic design, he illustrates magazines as well as picture books. He lives in Brussels with his wife and daughters.

Reviews

PreS-Gr 2-Mr. Renny, a pup, is a painter, and a very realistic one at that. Everything he creates looks exactly like what it is. One day when none of his works is selling, he wishes out loud that he could eat his painting of an apple. Maybe then he wouldn't be so hungry. In a flash a man appears and grants him his wish. From then on, all of Mr. Renny's subjects immediately come to life. He goes crazy painting pictures of anything and everything he can think of that he might want: dessert, a car, a boat, an airplane, and so on. But when his rabbit friend, Rose, asks him to paint something for her, he realizes that he can no longer create art for art's sake, and he paints a portrait of the man who granted his first wish. As expected, he appears, and Mr. Renny asks him to undo that wish and let him be a real painter again. And with a snap of the man's fingers, Mr. Renny is just that. This is a well-told tale with vibrant, eye-catching, colorful illustrations that will engage readers. The story will engender some wonderful discussion about instant gratification versus working at something you really love. This deceptively simple book will have a lot of classroom uses.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

An impoverished artist goes for the gusto—for a time, at least—after a stranger grants him the power to turn each thing he paints into a real item. Opening with a nod to Magritte (a picture of an apple captioned: “This is not an apple”), Timmers illustrates his wish-fulfillment fantasy with appropriately surreal assemblages of clothed animals, delectable food, and a veritable flood of retro-style cars, furniture, and other fancy goods—all of which look toylike in their proportions but are modeled and colored with lapidary precision. Though not in the least unhappy amid his luxurious new possessions, Mr. Renny lets them all revert to images on canvas after he turns down an actual commission and realizes that, as he tells a flock admiring his lyrical new painting of a flower, “Once a painter, always a painter!” A breezy variant on the King Midas legend. Oh, and Mr. Renny is a spaniel in a beret. Preschool-Grade 3. --John Peters

Edition details

• Publisher: Gecko Pr
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1877579203
• ISBN 13: 9781877579202
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40