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Max and the Dumb Flower Picture
Product Code: 91561 ISBN: 978-1-58089-156-1 Binding Information: Hardcover Ages: 4 - 7 Availability: In stock. Price: $9.95 Shop A Local Bookstore
It's time to color outside the lines Max's teacher wants to the class to color-in pictures for Mother's Day presents, but Max knows that his mother would not want a dumb flower picture drawn by someone else. Determined to express his creativity, Max runs off to draw his own picture. Max's drawing not only inspires the rest of the class to create their own original artwork but also enlightens the teacher. This book is good for your brain because: Early Childhood Literacy, Self-Expression  I came to know Martha in her eighties. Before she passed away, we talked a lot about this book and how much it meant to her. She believed that children need to feel the freedom of creativity--to look upon a blank sheet of paper and see the possibilities, not the limitations brought on by the fear of "not getting it right." Martha left me with her manuscript and unfinished sketches. Like blank sheets, these sketches had limitless possibilities. So I worked with them, fleshing them out with characters she had created in her other books and with those from her unpublished drawings. With the help of a computer, I let Martha finish her book and work her magic once more. --James Rumford Download the cover image! Preview the book! If you like this book, you'll love: Reviews Kirkus Reviews - June 1, 2009
A crisp envoi from the late Alexander celebrates creativity in children while delivering a pointed message to prescriptive grown-ups. Certain that his mom would rather have an original drawing than a colored-in coloring page that his teacher forces on him, Max hides in the shrubbery outside school to create his own picture. When his four classmates see the result, they're inspired to make unique flowers of their own--and all the moms (plus the teacher) turn out to be delighted. Working from the author's sketches, Rumford depicts Max as a small, fierce redhead, suspends him and the other figures in white space as Alexander often did and adds a prose appreciation to go with the stylistic one. Opening and closing pages of flower paintings contributed by friends, family and associates (some of them familiar names) wrap this terse and lovely tribute to a veteran writer and illustrator whose works no self-respecting library should be without.
Publishers Weekly - June 1, 2009
Before her death in 2006, Alexander (the Blackboard Bear series) left her manuscript and sketches in the hands of James Rumford (Beowulf: A Hero's Tale Retold). The tender result honors both Alexander and the children for whom she wrote for 40 years. Asked by his teacher, Miss Tilley, to color in a picture for Mother's Day, the scowling, carrot-topped protagonist refuses: “Max didn't want to color the dumb flower picture.” Despite the teacher's repeated insistence, Max knows his mother “would rather have his very own drawing.” After some stomping, sulking and hiding in the bushes, Max reveals the beautiful flower picture he has drawn on his own––which inspires his classmates to do the same. Alexander is spot-on with her understanding of the pressures children feel to conform (“You'll be the only one without a nice picture for your mother,” says Miss Tilley) and her respect for their individualism, which to the uninformed, may appear like acting-out. Framed by white space, the soft sketches are color washed digitally and by hand, and with Rumford's collaboration, still bear Alexander's simple, expressive style.
Booklist - July 1, 2009
An angry child provides the drama in this small picture book about a young kid who refuses to stay inside the lines. With lots of white space, the detailed line-and-watercolor illustrations show Max with his arms crossed as he fumes and scowls at his cheery teacher, who has made copies of a flower picture for each student in the class to color for Mother’s Day. “Make the flowers pretty,” she gushes. Max grabs the flower picture and hides under a bush for so long that the teacher eventually calls the police to find him. While he is hiding, Max turns the pre-drawn picture over and creates his own flower, and when he shows it to the class, all the kids decide to draw unique flowers, too. When they see the results, the children’s mothers love the kids’ artwork: “Each is so different.” Kids will enjoy the story about the young, triumphant rebel, and the creativity message is for adults too: there is no one way to get things right. Kids Lit - August 8, 2009
This is Martha Alexander’s last book. You have probably read some of her books, but to jar your memory she did the Blackboard Bear series. This final book was completed from her unfinished manuscript and sketches by James Rumford. Max’s teacher Miss Tilley wants the class to color a picture of a rose for Mother’s Day. Each child is given a sheet with the same rose copied on it, but Max knows that his mom would not want that for a present. So Max refuses to color the sheet and runs from the room, hiding behind the bushes to create his own flower for his mother. Everyone looks for Max, even the police, and when he is found he shows everyone his flower. All of the children are inspired to create one of their very own, unique from everyone else’s. Make sure to take time to look at the end pages filled with flowers drawn by Martha Alexander’s friends and family. A simple story, well told and inspiring, this book will remind everyone that you don’t have to stay in the lines, don’t have to color a red rose like everyone else, and can create your own art and beauty. Along the way, children who are happy to create their own art, stop. They start following our rules, losing their creativity. Suddenly skies are no longer orange and pink, cows are not purple, and clouds a fluffy in front of a corner sun. This book is a small step towards fixing that and giving children back their own voice, odd, unusual and colorful. I can see using this with adults working on creativity. It reinforces that there is no right or wrong answer when being creative and expressive. It is also a wonderful book for children who are just beginning to feel the pressure to stay in the lines. Let’s all wander outside those lines and celebrate it! Appropriate for ages 4-7. School Library Journal - September 1, 2009
Published posthumously, this small, timeless book will resonate with chlidren and pays a lovely tribute to Alexander. Faced with his teacher's assignment to color in a picture of a flower for Mother's Day, Max feels increasingly frustrated. He knows his mother would prefer his own drawing. While the other children obediently stay in the lines, Max finally grabs his paper and crayons and runs out of the classroom. Safely hiding, he makes his own picture of a flower. In the end, the children (not to mention the teacher and policeman) are relieved to find Max--and so inspired by his picture that they create their own unique flowers, too. Alexander left her original sketches along with the manuscript to Rumford, who helped to complete them with some digital manipulation and watercolors. The book is respectful of her quiet but expressive style, and the illustrations work well with the text to bring Max's internal struggle to life. Interesting endpapers featuring flowers designed by Alexander's friends and family beautifully frame the theme of creative individuality. Rumford's note at the end explains how the book came to be.
New York Times Book Review - October 11, 2009
The problem here for a freethinking pre-schooler is presented on the first page: "Max didn't want to color the dumb flower picture. Miss Tilley wanted him to." Instead of filling in the prefab flower for Mother's Day, Max (looking wonderfully grumpy) runs off to make his own drawing. It's a triumph when the class joyfully follows suit. Martha Alexander (1920-2007) left notes and sketches for this story about the possibilities of "a blank sheet of paper," and James Rumford ably completed it.
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