Draw!, illustrated by Raúl Colón. This visually striking and playful wordless book begins with a boy sitting in his room, drawing a picture of himself walking, easel, pencils, and sketchbook in hand, across an African landscape. He then befriends a realistically rendered elephant who befriends him, poses for him, and then serves as a guide through this wondrous natural world. A lovely image shows the elephant appreciating the boy's impressive work, and then giving him a piggyback ride to meet and draw the other animals. What I love about the book is the illustrator's charming use of perspective--we are looking over the boy's shoulder at his pencil drawings, and we can also enjoy the zebras catching the child's artistic eye. Another spread shows the budding artist trying to capture the motion of running giraffes, and outrunning a charging rhino (so far my favorite cover image this year). Another spread shows the boy far away sitting in a tree while we are up close to lions, or sitting on the elephant's back while drawing another creature. The book ends with a charming coda: he hugs the elephant goodbye (such a moving image), and then we find out what the drawings are for on the final spread. This highly personal work from Colón, who says in an afterword that he used to spend hours drawing in his room. It's a great work from one of the best illustrators working today.
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