Every young artist has drawn or painted a still life scene. Perhaps it is a bowl of fruit, or a toy, or a vase of flowers, or a chair. The only rule is that a still life painting must stay still. But staying still is hard! Especially for a curious mouse and a hungry dragon and a no-nonsense princess. Will the artist notice that his still life painting is breaking all the rules? From award-winning author Alex London and Caldecott Medal–winning artist Paul O. Zelinsky, Still Life is a funny, subversive, and clever picture book that brings a painting to wildly imaginative life. Readers will pore over all the silly and surprising details in the illustrations—which tell a story of daring rescues, dashing heroes, and found friends. With its inventive humor, Still Life is for readers of Battle Bunny and David Ezra Stein’s Interrupting Chicken.

Paul O. Zelinsky grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, the son of a mathematics professor father and a medical illustrator mother. He drew compulsively from an early age, but did not know until college that this would be his career. As a Sophomore in Yale College he enrolled in a course on the history and practice of the picture book, co-taught by an English professor and Maurice Sendak. This experience inspired Paul to point himself in the direction of children’s books. His first book appeared in 1978, since which time he has become recognized as one of the most inventive and critically successful artists in the field. He now lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York. They have two grown daughters. Among many other awards and prizes, he received the 1998 Caldecott Medal for his illustrated retelling of Rapunzel, as well as Caldecott Honors for three of his books: Hansel and Gretel (1985), Rumpelstiltskin (1987), and Swamp Angel (1995). In 2018, Paul was given the Carle Honor Award for Illustration.

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https://bookshop.org/a/88548/9780063229556 

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