The Class Artist by G. Brian Karas

The Class Artist by G. Brian Karas is a fun and inspiring book. The main character, Fred, goes home after the first day of school upset about his drawing abilities. Other kids in the class were picking on him and the little confidence he might have had with drawing is now gone. His teacher assigns an art project to the class, giving them an entire week to make whatever they want. Fred is excited and decides to go all out making an extravagant tipi that is sure to impress his teacher and classmates. Come Friday, the day the project is due and the students will be presenting to the class, Fred has nothing to show; his big plan majorly fell through and Fred was upset. At the last second he was able to throw something together, and as it turns out, Fred's art project was the best.

While the book was quite predictable, I still enjoyed it and feel that many children can relate to Fred. It is so rare for kids to feel confident about their artistic abilities, and this is something that develops early on in elementary school. Either you can draw, or you can't, period. This is the message that most young kids receive and it's really sad. I was one of those kids that knew I couldn't draw and therefore HATED art. This stigma followed me into my adult age and and is something I struggle with to this day. Fred's teacher assigned an art project that had absolutely no requirements, it was completely up to the students to choose what they wanted to do. So many times teachers assign art projects that must be done a certain way, which ultimately doesn't allow any creativity or choice on the students' end. When teachers have a particular vision of what the end product should look like and identify this to their students, the students are being set up for failure. My art projects never looked the way they "should" have, and as a result, I was extremely turned off by art.

While this book would be more than appropriate for children of all ages, I would use it specifically with 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders; this is usually when the "my art doesn't look like theirs" stage starts to happen. I think that children in this age group will appreciate this book and be inspired by Fred's confidence to move forward with art and just enjoy it, not hold back in fear of what others' reactions may be.