Art Makes People Powerful

In an exuberant workbook, the Smiths encourage budding and reluctant artists alike to embrace their creativity. Organized into chapters that explore the way ideas, play, and people “are powerful,” activities presented range from the speculative to the realist. While opening pages begin with an invite to render blobs (“The universe started as a giant ball of matter—draw a giant blob on this page”), other spreads ask readers to invent new words and instruments, paint with their fingers, and mess with perspective or shapes, among dozens more prompts. A final section delves into identity and life drawing, suggesting ways art can tell people how one feels and even feed dreams. Informal, poster-like red and blue text and illustrations leave ample white space for readerly play while providing whimsical inspiration for finding one’s inner artist. Ages 6–11. (June)