Micawber: Micawber - Hardcover

Lithgow, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689833415 ISBN 13: 9780689833410

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

A squirrel named Micawber loves the paintings he sees through the windows of the nearby art museum. One day he notices an artist copying the old masters, and he decides to do the same -- with surprising results.
In their second collaboration, best-selling author-illustrator team John Lithgow and C. F. Payne introduce children to the world of art through the eyes -- and paint-splattered tail -- of a highly creative squirrel.

About this title

About the Author:

John Lithgow is the New York Times bestselling author of I Got Two Dogs; Mahalia Mouse Goes to College; Marsupial Sue Presents: The Runaway Pancake; I’m A Manatee; Micawber; Marsupial Sue; The Remarkable Farkle McBride; and Carnival of the Animals. An award-winning actor, he has starred on stage, film, and television. He performs concerts across the country and has recorded the CDs Farkle and Friends, Singin’ in the Bathtub, and The Sunny Side of the Street. Visit John at JohnLithgow.com.

From Publishers Weekly:

The team behind The Remarkable Farkle McBride returns with another high-spirited tale celebrating the arts. While young Farkle found joy in orchestral music, Micawber the squirrel is a lover of the fine art of painting. The refined New York City rodent makes a weekly scamper from his Central Park nest to the nearby "palace on Fifth Avenue" (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), where he can "feast... his eyes and his heart" on countless masterworks. On one such museum visit Micawber stows away among an art student's supplies and winds up in the woman's apartment, where he clandestinely uses her equipment to paint his own canvases, substituting his bushy tail for a brush. As months pass, the benign bandit assembles his own colorful gallery in his home atop the park's carousel. In a tighter, more linear text than Farkle, Lithgow conveys the sense of discovery and emotional enjoyment one can experience while observing or creating art. The vast majority of lines here have a musical rhythm, though young readers may need to puzzle out the meaning of words like "peregrination." Payne's mixed-media compositions capture an area of Manhattan at its clean, sunny best. His varying perspectives and occasionally paint-splattered backgrounds embrace all the exhilaration of Lithgow's words. Ages 5-8. FYI: Included is a CD recording of Lithgow reading his text.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0689833415
• ISBN 13: 9780689833410
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Payne C. F.