Bear's Picture

First published in 1972 with illustrations by the author, Bear s Picture (April 2008; Houghton Mifflin) by Daniel Pinkwater tells the tale of a bear with a creative streak and a mind of his own.

Bear is happily painting a picture when two fine, proper gentlemen approach and begin critiquing his work. But Bear knows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the only person that his picture needs to impress is himself.

This spring this classic tale is brought to new life by the award-winning illustrator D. B. Johnson, who imbues the pages with vibrant colors that perfectly highlight the book s simple but bold message. Daniel Pinkwater and D. B. Johnson turn art (and art critics) upside down in this witty, winning tale about independent thought, self-expression, and learning how to ignore the naysayers.

Publishers Weekly

Imaginative illustrations from a notable ursine stylist, Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg), lend pizzazz to this reillustrated 1972 bear-centric tale from Pinkwater, author of the Larry polar bear series. Bear, depicted in speckled charcoal with a sky-blue glint in his eyes, is painting a picture in rainbow hues. As Bear paints, "two fine, proper gentlemen" in natty attire stroll by and comment on his work. "Bears can't paint pictures," they sniff. "Nobody can tell what it is supposed to be." Bear, "mixing just the right kind of yellow," calmly contradicts them and keeps painting. Through the "gentlemen's" patronizing dialogue, Pinkwater conjures sympathy for the childlike yet confident Bear. Johnson borrows Jon Agee's upright style for the men's pointy noses and broad comic gestures, reinforcing the words with sly visual details. When Bear asserts that his abstract piece depicts a tree by a stream, Johnson pictures the flustered critics sinking into the water within the image so that only their distinctive hats remain, while the action of the grayscale-tinted characters is made to complement the still painting's energetic palette. Readers who follow the lead of curving type and invert the book see a multicolored bear's face in the finished painting, aptly concluding this paean to self-expression. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)

D. B. Johnson has been a freelance illustrator for more than twenty years and has done editorial cartoons, comic strips, and conceptual illustrations for magazines and newspapers around the country. Mr. Johnson's first picture book, Henry Hikes to Fitchburg, was a New York Times bestseller and a Publishers Weekly bestseller, as well as an American Bookseller "Pick of the Lists." Henry Hikes to Fitchburg also won numerous awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Picture Books and the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. Mr. Johnson and his wife, Linda, live in New Hampshire.