Josiah True and the Art Maker - Hardcover

Ages 6^-8. It's 1817, and an "art maker" named Patience Cage agrees to paint a portrait of little Josiah True and his parents. Josiah's mother wants to be painted in a red dress, Josiah's father in a new waistcoat, and Josiah himself with a loyal dog. The family doesn't own those things, but Patience paints the Trues as if they do. At the end of the sitting, Patience gives Josiah a gift of a small paintbrush, and Josiah grows up to be a painter of the American West. Although classified as fiction, this has the feel of actual history, something supported by the folk-style collagraphs, which Garrison has made by gluing paper and other materials on cardboard, printing the result on an etching press, then applying watercolors. A useful addition to collections in need of short, historical fiction for the primary-grade reader. Janice Del Negro