Tomie dePaola – The Art Lesson            

The Art Lesson is a book for a reading level of PK-5^th grade. The story of a boy who wanted to be an artist when he grew up and his first art lesson. Tommy goes through struggles of being in kindergarten and not having art lessons. So he practiced and waited until 1^st grade where he would meet the art teacher and have his very first art lesson. He had two twin cousins who were much older and going to school to become real artists. They told Tommy that real artists don’t copy. So it was a huge surprise when in his first art lesson he was told to copy what the teacher was drawing, he was also not allowed to use his own set of 64 crayons instead he had to use a set of 8 that were school crayons. At the end the teacher allows him to create something original when she realizes he is hesitant to copy her work. Tomie dePaola ends up being the Tommy in the book and he writes about he continues to make original work. This is a great story to read to growing children as they begin to develop individual styles of drawing and their own interests. It teaches them to not give up on their dreams and always continue to do what they love. This is a fun and interesting way to introduce the idea of an artist to very young children as well.