CÉZANNE AND THE APPLE BOY

Anholt continues his series of picture books about children and great artists with this homey episode about Paul Cézanne and his son, also named Paul. The highly eccentric painter has lived apart from young Paul and his mother for years, and as the tale opens, he has just invited his son to visit him in the Provençal countryside, where the boy finally finds him on a mountainside, painting. As the two get to know each other, Cézanne explains his theory of painting: “I make everything into simple shapes….You are as round as a sweet little apple!” A chance meeting with a Parisian art dealer leads to recognition and success and ultimately to young Paul’s future career as his father’s agent. It’s a simply told tale that emphasizes the father-son relationship; lessons about Cézanne’s importance in the canon are slipped in sideways. Tiny reproductions of Cézanne’s works are integrated into the author’s customarily loose, bright watercolors to illustrate those lessons. An author’s note rounds out the background of the story and indicates that young Paul’s grandson, Philippe Cézanne, assisted in its making. (Picture book. 5-8)