Bea Reviews I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont and Illustrated by David Catrow

Publisher: Harcourt
Source: Purchased
Release Date: April 1st, 2005
Buying Links: Amazon* | Abe Books | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

A dab of blue here, a splash of red there, a goopy smear of green . . . everywhere. To the tune of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," one creative kid floods his world with color, painting first the walls, then the ceiling, then HIMSELF! Before this feisty artist is through, he'll have painted his head, back, hands, legs, feet, and . . . Oh no--here comes Mama!

Karen Beaumont's zippy text and David Catrow's zany illustrations turn an infamous childhood activity into raucous storytime fun, giving a silly twist to the fine art of self-expression.

My Thoughts:

I featured this book in my favorite books of 2016 post but somehow never got around to reviewing it. An art teacher at a school I used to teach at had this book in her classroom and I borrowed it from her, repeatedly borrowed it from the town library, and finally bought my own copy. Each of my classes has enjoyed this book and several my students learned it by heart.

The book pretty much has it all - infectious rhyming, laugh out loud humor, a simple but engaging story, and expressive, bright and cheerful art. It's joyous, it's delightful, it's messy, and it gleefully celebrates the intersection of art and sensory and the sheer delight of self-expression. I smile every time I read it and every time I read it, I start singing it. There's no song that goes with it but the rhyme suggests a tune and I have fun with it. As I read it, the children and I talk about the events in the book, and the images, and they try to predict what will happen next. They laugh at the boy and many of them can relate to his joy and his messiness. As a toddler teacher, I am all for children getting messy while playing, and believe that art at their age can and should be sensory. That said, I do feel for the poor mother in the book cleaning up the mess. I hope that, off page, he helped clean up. I do have my students help clean up when we do art and/or sensory activities.

This is a delightful book that every young child, and every library and classroom, should have.