Synopses & Reviews
A powerful, eerily beautiful book about self-expression -- and who the ìfirstî painter might have been. The moon of the singing grass has come and gone three times, and still there is no rain. Mishoo's prehistoric clan is starving, her little sister's arms like twigs. Can a Dream Catcher bring them rain? Mishoo's mother had been the clan's Dream Catcher. She spoke with spirits, trying to catch a dream of rain. Now she is a spirit herself. She tells a sleeping Mishoo: "You are Dream Catcher. You must go to the cave of the she-tiger." Mishoo dares to go-and there discovers rock that looks like dripping animal fat, rock like giant fangs from the saver-toothed tiger. Something stirs inside her. And as she picks up a charred stick from the fire and begins to draw the animal she sees buried in the stone, she wonders, "Am I catching spirits or being caught myself?" This powerful and strikingly original picture book provides a fascinating glimpse into the prehistoric world as it imagines who the first painter might have been.
Review
Using cave paintings discovered in Europe as their guide, Lasky and Baviera capture all of the power, mystery, and simple elegance of those first works of art. (Family Life)
Review
One of the most original and stunning books weíve ever seen! (Book Passage)
Review
Together Lasky and Baviera have addressed with total intelligence the great questions of the nature, the functions, and the origins of art--all in a book for children! (Boston Globe)
Review
What moves people to make art? Lasky answers that question with a brilliantly imagined story of the daughter of a shaman 30,000 years ago. Mishoo and her clan have not seen rain in so long that the grass has dried up and the animals have moved on. Mishoo's now-dead mother was a dream catcher and visits Mishoo's dreams, urging her to the cave of the she-tiger. Mishoo is afraid, but her sister's thin arms spur her to take her mother's spirit bundle and go. She crawls into the hidden cave, lights a fire, and sees in the shadows and the rock-- something. Mishoo takes up a stick and outlines on the rock what she sees in her mind: first a galloping horse, then a rhinoceros, a bison, the she-tiger herself. For three days she paints with the earth colors in her spirit bundle, and at last she places her paint-covered hand on the wall, marking her work. When she emerges from the cave, she finds that the rain has indeed come. Baviera's images are very powerful. He has used the natural pigments and bear fat available to that first painter as well as constructing Mishoo's clothing out of skins and fur and her tools from bone. The palette is rich in earth tones and firelight, and the figures have an iconic expressiveness deeply suited to the text. An author's note lists bibliography and research. This tile creates for children an accessible truth--that art has magic, that art holds immense human meaning, and that the artist makes things happen inside the human soul. (Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review)
Review
Lasky lyrically and plausibly imagines what might have prompted the creativity of a young cave painter. When her mother, a Dream Catcher, dies while attempting to relieve their people of drought and famine, Mishoo, as the eldest daughter, inherits the position. In a narrative that evokes the rhythms of an ancient chant, Lasky paints the desperation of Mishoo's plight. A recurring dream with a nightly call--uttered by generations of Dream Catchers before her--urges the heroine to 'go to the cave of the she-tiger'. Baviera deftly navigates a palette of earth tones to visually connect Mishoo's dream of visions of her mother and female forebears with the paintings she draws in the she-tiger's cave. The design of the book and photographs of the art work together to make her animal subjects seem alive. Readers will come away from this tale believing in the unmistakable connection between creativity and survival, a message echoed in the artwork: as Mishoo emerges from the cave, the sky turns from dusty gray to ocean blue. (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review)
Synopsis
Following the death of her mother, Mishoo the new shaman, must find a way to help her prehistoric tribe during a drought. A powerful, eerily beautiful book about self-expression and who the "first" painter might have been. Full-color illustrations.
About the Author
Kathryn Lasky is the author of many award-winning books, both fiction and nonfiction. Fascinated by what the first artistic impulses of our earliest ancestors might have been, and inspired by the beauty and power of cave art, she wrote First Painter, an imaginative reconstruction based on archaeological evidence. Ms. Lasky's many honors and awards include the Washington Post-Children's Book Guild Award for her contribution to children's nonfiction and the John Burroughs Award for outstanding nature books for children. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rocco Baviera has illustrated several picture books, including A Boy Called Slow by Joseph Bruchac, which was an ALA Notable Book and won the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association Children's Book Award. In illustrating First Painter, he used organic materials that would have been used in prehistoric times-natural pigments, bear fat, animal skins, furs, bones, twigs, stone. He made the clothes Mishoo wears out of skins and fur; he made her tools, her spirit bundle that she uses to carry her pigments; he shaped her paint-mixing bowl out of bone. While inspired by the cave paintings in Europe, he chose not to copy them for this book, but to create new paintings to decorate a cave that is uncovered here for the first time. Rocco Baviera lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.