I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

The Rousing Chorus of the Rebel Painter!

Paint and children seem to be drawn to each other, and eventually the paints wander off the paper and brush and onto the children themselves. In this energetic picture book, we meet an extreme young painter whose canvas is his own body--much to the dismay of his mother. Sung to the tune of "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More", this book is homage to the rebel painter in all of us.

So our painter starts the book banned from painting by his mother after he's managed to get paint everywhere. Thus "ya ain't a-gonna paint no more!" And our youngster has the best of intentions, but just can't help himself. He finds his paints and begins to paint his entire body, bit by bit. Children can join in guessing what body part he's painting by how it rhymes with the preceding text, and they'll be able to join in the chorus very quickly. By the end of the book, the child is just about to paint a rather . . . questionable area of his body, when his mother comes home. And thus, our painter winds up back in the bathtub where he began the story.

The text is cute and the story is fun, but what really makes this book stand out is Catrow's artwork. Everything but the paints and the things the boy paints in the story is drawn in sparse grey and black pencil, with few exceptions. For the most part the background and the characters are depicted without any color added. This makes the increasing amount of color on the page very noticeable indeed The page starts off mostly white and bare, and quickly becomes alive with color as the artist goes to work dripping his paints with joy and delight and no worries of the consequences. He gets more elaborate in his decoration as he paints his body, decking his arms with ants, his hand with a smiley face, his leg to look like an Easter egg. By the very end, the visual cues show that the boy's lost all inhibitions in his work and is like some mad hatter of a painter, spraying color everywhere. And then the mother walks in, a stark contrast in her black and white, and clearly the end of such misbehavior. The artwork makes this book hilarious fun for a read aloud, and makes children of all ages itch to grab their paints.


Some parents may not like this book. I can't exactly say I blame them, since clearly our main protagonist is out of control with his painting. They may not want to encourage this kind of behavior in their own children, especially if their child's artistic expression is already exceeding boundaries. Still, I think that this is a worthwhile book, especially if you discuss with the children where paint is supposed to go. Most will agree that you aren't supposed to paint yourself! I won't guarantee there won't be a few experimenters, but that might be a reason to get some soap crayons or body paints that are washable just for that purpose.

For other entertaining story/song picture books, check out The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow and Down By the Station by Will Hillenbrand (our reviews).

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!

• Accelerated Reading level : generic "2"
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (April 1, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0152024883
• See-a-Sample