Product Description

Michelin paints portraits that do not flatter her sitters but she learns an enduring lesson when she must paint her kindly aunt and uncle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #997819 in Books
• Published on: 1991-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Executed in vibrant colors, characters with singularly expressive faces fill the pages of this book, in which Edwards offers a distinctive portrait of a painter of portraits. Michelin insists on putting exactly what she sees on canvas, which gets her into trouble when she renders a study of the mayor's family--warts and all. Her honesty has caused business to fall off, until finally she is asked to catch the likeness of her aunt and uncle, who own a bakery. Michelin is faced with a dilemma: does she portray her rotund uncle and her toothless aunt as they really are? The resourceful painter's solution provides a piquant ending to the tale. As in her Chicken Man , Edwards's old-world setting and underlying message lend this story the feeling of a modern folktale. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-- Michelin is a portrait painter who hasn't had much business since she painted the fat mayor, his warty wife, and their cross-eyed children--just as she saw them. Now her Uncle Ferdinand and Aunt Liliane would like their portraits done, but they are both extremely fat and most of Liliane's teeth are missing. Michelin doesn't want to hurt their feelings, but she can't paint them flatteringly until she spends an evening talking to Ferdinand and learns to see what's inside them rather than their outward appearances. This story is illustrated in oil paintings in a colorful, folk-art style that has a strong European flavor. Nice, but undistinguished. --JoAnn Rees, Sunnyvale Public Library, CA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Painter Michelin is out of work because people don't care for her candid portraits. When her family finds her a commission, it puts Michelin in a quandry: her aunt and uncle, who are bakers, are not only unprepossesing but fat. But after honest (if ugly) preliminary drawings, she finds a way to satisfy both her integrity and her sitters--she paints their favorite foods, a handsome chocolate cake and a crusty challah. Using vigorous black line and vivid, sophisticated colors in her own sympathetic but unsparing art, Edwards makes it clear that, though these people may look homely, they are also interesting and likable. An entertaining story whose message reaches beyond the world of art. (Picture book. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.