HUGO AND MILES IN I’VE PAINTED EVERYTHING!

Hugo is deep in an “elephunk” because he’s already “painted everything!” The buddies leave their happy hometown of Cornville for a revitalizing trip to Paris. They tour the major sights: Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre, the Louvre, Musée D’Orsay, etc. Atop the Eiffel Tower, Hugo has an epiphany: change his point of view and then paint “everything all over again, only differently.” Home again with a new perspective, Hugo experiments with a variety of art media, releases his block and soon enough he’s painting! Magoon contributed the appealing cartoon-inflected digital illustrations to Kara LaReau’s fable on bullying for the pre-school set, Ugly Fish (2006). Unfortunately, here he displays a dated palette of creaky “artist” stereotypes (melancholy, paint-spattered clothes and the requisite studio easel). Though he tried for a fresh vision, the story is predictable, and the blocky pencil and digitally colored illustrations have a forced hipster vibe. (Picture book. 4-8)