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Paint by Magic

Name: Paint by Magic
Author: Kathryn Reiss
ISBN: 9780152049256

by Kathryn Reiss

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Overview

Something is terribly wrong with Connor's mom—she keeps slipping into bizarre trances. Connor suspects that the key to his mom's strange behavior is an old art book filled with paintings of a woman who looks exactly like her. But the artist who created those paintings died before his mom was even born.
Connor gets his chance to break the evil link between the past and the present when he is mysteriously whisked back in time to the 1920s. But can he save his mom—and himself—before it's too late?

After his mom suddenly starts acting old-fashioned, eleven-year-old Conner is transported back to 1926, where he must discover and break the mysterious hold an obsessed artist has on his mom that is trapping her between times.

Synopsis

Eleven-year-old Connor has to discover and break the mysterious hold an obsessed artist has on his mom in this time-travel mystery from award-winning author Kathryn Reiss.

Audrey Berner - Alan Review

When Connor's mother starts acting strangely, the whole family becomes alarmed. She throws out the TV's, computers and cell phones; she insists on firing the cook, gardener and babysitter; she becomes very possessive about an art book that had been sitting on the coffee table. She also begins to fall into frightening periods of paralysis that become harder and harder to break. Connor solves the mystery of his mother's new behavior, and learns to understand it when he is transported back in time to 1926. Kathryn Reiss uses wonderful descriptions of places and atmosphere to tell this story. Dialogue, people and places jump off the page. Furthermore, as Reiss moves her story back and forth from 2002 to 1926 to 1479, she never breaks her rhythm or intensity. Though the ending is not unexpected, the journey there is fraught with challenges and surprises. This book is an excellent choice for younger teenagers or those who want a fast, exciting plot. 2002, Harcourt, 271 pp,

About the Author, Kathryn Reiss

KATHRYN REISS is the author of many acclaimed time-travel mystery novels for teens. She lives in northern California.

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Editorials

From The Critics

Children's Literature

Award-winning author Kathryn Reiss concocts a delicious tale of art, action, and adventure in this Time Travel novel. Something very weird is happening with Connor's mom. Connor comes home from school one day and there's no TV, no computer, and no phone left in the house. His mother seems to have altered her personality overnight. Connor traces the mystery to an art book his mother has been studying. How on earth could Mom's image be in a painting that is over 80 years old? Investigating the strange art book, Connor inadvertently follows in his mother's footsteps—right into the past. 1926 to be exact. Connor is befriended by a nice family, who, with the exception of Uncle Fitz, the painter who seldom leaves his studio, take Connor in as one of their own. They explain how they miss Pammie, the woman who seemed to come from nowhere, whom Uncle Fitz called "his muse." Pammie—Connor's mother—disappeared from 1926 as suddenly as she came. Unraveling a web of evil that spans all the way to fifteenth century Italy, Connor struggles to learn the secrets of the magic paint that could save his life, and his mother's. This book is notable not only for its skillful plotting and action scenes, but also for its exploration of how an artist lives on through his work, and how modern families have lost sight of the simple pleasantness of days gone by. 2002, Harcourt,
— Christopher Moning

KLIATT

Conner is a typical modern kid: video games, after-school activities, a busy family whose members are never home at the same time. Run, run, run is all he does and he loves it, or so he thinks! He comes home one day to find his mother home early from work, sitting on the couch wearing new clothes and an old-fashioned hairstyle. On her lap is an old art book opened to a picture of a woman that looks like her and it has her locked in some kind of trance. This begins many strange episodes in Conner's house. His mother keeps going into these trances, each more terrifying than the one before. She's hidden all the televisions, computers, and cell phones and insists that things are not as they were in the "good old days." She is protective of the art book and won't let anyone look at it. Conner figures out that the book has something to do with his mom's strange behavior and, while investigating, gets whisked back in time to 1926. He finds himself living with the Cotton family, which has ties to the paintings in his mom's art book. While the Cotton children befriend him and help him solve the mystery concerning his mother, he also learns to appreciate the small pleasures of life...drinking lemonade on the porch, building tree forts, swimming in a pond, doing jigsaw puzzles. This rare book manages to be both creepy and "feel good" at the same time. It has some dark moments but is a well-planned mystery, clever and addictive. Kathryn Reiss is the author of several other YA novels including PaperQuake and Time Windows, both time-travel mysteries. KLIATT Codes: J-Recommended for junior high school students. 2002, Harcourt, 271p., Ages 12 to 15.
— Erin Lukens Darr

VOYA

In yet another time-travel mystery by the author of the Time Window series, Connor comes home from school one day to find his mother in a frozen state sitting on the couch. More disturbingly, she is holding a book of paintings that features a woman who looks exactly like her, although the art was created in the 1920s. As Connor's mother goes in and out of this catatonic state, the family also is disturbed to realize that she has gotten rid of all the televisions after she suddenly feels that they are talking to each other. Eventually, Connor himself is pulled into the past and meets the painter, Fitzgerald Cotton, who seems to be capturing his mother. Cotton is somehow tied to a painter further in the past nicknamed the Smiler, described as evil by his contemporaries, and part of the mystery himself. While in the past, Connor befriends the Cotton family and undergoes a transformation as he learns to appreciate the simpler things in life. Ultimately, Connor must unravel the mystery of what is happening to save his mother and find his way back home. Although it takes Connor quite a while to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the basic premise of the novel is evident early on. Moreover, the pacing seems quite rushed and never allows any of the characters to be fully developed. Fans of the genre, especially avid readers of Reiss's books, will enjoy the story anyway. VOYA CODES: 2Q 3P M J (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2002, Harcourt, 288p,
— Karen Jensen

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Connor Chase and his sister lead an overscheduled life with two successful working parents. Meals consist of fast foods and microwave dinners, and homework is completed by the light of TV or video games. Then one day he comes home to find that his mother has gotten rid of the televisions, computers, and extra phones in the house, and is actually cooking dinner. Even stranger are her weird clothes, old-fashioned haircut, and the art book she tries to keep hidden, which, as Connor discovers, shows her as the model for pictures by a long-dead painter, Fitzgerald Cotton. When she starts having strange seizurelike episodes that leave her frozen and terrified, Connor grabs the book and is thrown back in time to 1924 to the studio and home of Cotton, where he finds the man painting his mother in the same frozen pose. To save her, he enlists the help of Cotton's niece and nephew and convinces the man that the painting and the ancient paints that belonged to an evil ancestor must be destroyed. Reiss tells most of the story from Connor's point of view and his narration doesn't always sound like an 11-year-old boy's voice. However, the villain's sections from 15th-century Italy, related in the third person, are creepy and suspenseful. While Reiss goes overboard in making the point that life in the past was slower and generally more enjoyable, the story is unusual and compelling and readers will want to know how everything is resolved.-Lisa Prolman, Greenfield Public Library, MA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A palette with daubs of time travel, artists, magic, evil, and possession paints an intriguing mystery. When his mom suddenly starts acting strange, going into trances, and removing all television sets from the house, 11-year-old Connor figures out that an art book about the painter Fitzgerald Cotton is the key. When he finds a loose sketch of his mom, he is transported back to 1926 to the Cotton family house, the same place where his mom had been summoned by Fitzgerald to serve as his muse. Piece by piece, Connor discovers that the paint powders from 1479 belonging to an evil genius/artist, Lorenzo da Padova, possess Fitz. Connor's mom is a distant relative to Lorenzo's muse and looks like her, and the more Fitz tries to paint her, the stronger the hold on both of them. Connor succeeds in breaking the spell, freeing his mom, and returning home-wiser and more appreciative of earlier times and family bonds. Like the jigsaw puzzles the Cotton family put together, pieces fall into place fairly easily though readers will share Connor's confusion and will be piqued by his suppositions of how kids from then (1926) would be old people in his time. Fans of Reiss's Time Windows (1991) will step right into this "Time Travel Mystery." (Fiction. 10-14)