THAT’S HOW I SEE THINGS

An artist’s offbeat creativity renders his own brainchildren homeless until he dreams up a solution. Siena Baba is a painter who “saw things differently from other people.” Where most people see a full moon, Siena Baba sees a sky with a white hole in it. So when he decides to “paint some animals for his house,” the results are anatomically unorthodox. “Hello Pea-pig<\b>,” he greets his first creation, porcine with feathers, “You look beautiful.” But the Pea-pig is less than thrilled, as are the Blue-jion (blue jay with a roaring lion’s head), Croco-rooster, Ele-crab, Monk-upine and so on. “ ‘HELP!’ they all cried together,” unhappy and confused. Siena Baba sleeps on the problem and produces a delightful solution for his grumpy blended creatures. Shyam’s flat, patterned technique includes attractive composition and design, though the choice of style means a lack of facial expressions to capture the animals’ emotions as voiced in the text. A richly concise, neatly cerebral little tale. (Picture book. 3-6)