Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Painted Dreams by Karen Lynn Williams

This book is about a little girl named Ti Marie and her love of painting. In the beginning of the story Ti Marie uses bricks and rocks to created colors for her paintings. However, she does not have a lot of time to paint because she has to look after her two younger siblings while her mother goes to sell food at the market and her father goes to work in the field. One day while she is watching her siblings she sees the bocor (priest and healer), Msie Antoine. His yard is full of houses that have brightly painted pictures on them that Ti Marie falls in love with. Then, she sees him painiting and she sees all of the paints that he is using. She wishes she had paints like his so she sneaks out one night and she finds his old paint tubes that he had thrown away and she uses the last little bits of the paint. She goes to the market to help her mother and she realizes that their area never really gets looked at when people come to the market because it is so far back. Ti Marie decides to help her mother and she finds a wall that she can clear and make into a "canvas." Many people stop by their cart to see her painting and end up buying from her mother. For the rest of the book she is able to practice her painting and the bocor tells her that she is doing a great job.
I think this story is great because children can really see how it is important to find something you believe in and keep going. Ti Marie's mother didn't quite agree with her through the entire process because she knew it might not happen and she need Ti Marie for help. However, even without the full support of her mother she still did what she had to do to help her mother/family and to get the paints/materials that she needed.

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