Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Hugo and Miles In I’ve Painted Everything: An adventure in Paris
Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Houghton Mifflin, 2007 ISBN: 978-0618646388
Hugo is an elephant who loves to paint. At the moment he is an artist who has a very big problem. Hugo has painted everything and he has run out of a very important artistic ingredient – inspiration. After all, where is an artist if he doesn’t have any ideas? So, Hugo goes to see his friend Miles, hoping that Miles will know what can be done to salvage the situation.
Luckily Miles has a very good suggestion, and before Hugo has time to make too much of a fuss the two friends are on their way to Paris where Miles is sure Hugo will see lots of things that will get the old creative juices flowing once more.
At first the wonderful things he sees don’t help Hugo at all but then Hugo goes to the top of the Eiffel tower and he has a brainstorm. Suddenly he realizes that all he has to do is to look at the world from a different point of view and he will never run out of ideas. Indeed, he will always have something new to paint for as along as he wants to put paint to canvas.
In this often funny, always sweet, and thoroughly enjoyable picture book, Scott Magoon perfectly shows his readers that inspiration is not always as hard to find as one thinks. Of course it does help to go to Paris, if one can, but it isn’t really necessary. All one really has to do is to take a step back and look at the world with fresh eyes. You’ll be surprised what you see if you try hard enough.
