''The Art Lesson'' is a 1989 children's picture book by

Tomie DePaola Thomas Anthony "Tomie" dePaola (; September 15, 1934 – March 30, 2020) was an American writer and illustrator who created more than 260 children's books, such as '' Strega Nona''. He received the Children's Literature Legacy Award for his lifeti ...

. The book was published by Trumpet Publishing and deals with the theme of compromise. ''The Art Lesson'' was met with a positive reception by critics and was one of the ''New York Times''s "Best Picture Books Of the Year for Children" in 1989.

Synopsis

The semi-autobiographical book features the character of Tommy, an enthusiastic painter and drawer, making pictures for his relatives and friends and drawing on the sidewalk, on bedsheets, and even on walls. For his birthday, Tommy gets a box of 64 Crayola

crayons A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of wax a ...

, but his new first-grade teacher rejects them, and makes him draw the same thing as everybody else in his class, with a few school crayons and on a single sheet of paper. He makes a bargain with the school Art Teacher: one page for the drawing that the rest of his class is making, with school crayons, and the second for his own crayons and his own art.

In popular culture

*The book was featured in an episode of ''

Kino's Storytime ''Kino's Storytime'', also known as ''Storytime'', is an American children's reading television program which aired on PBS from October 12, 1992 until September 1, 1997. It was produced by KCET in Los Angeles, California. It was available on VHS ...

''. *The book was also referenced in Tomie DePaola's appearance of the '' Barney & Friends'' episode, "Picture This!".

References

American picture books 1989 children's books {{1980s-child-novel-stub