Kat Chang and Eric Darnell’s The Magic Paintbrush (2024) opens with protagonist Amy Li in her 7th grade art class. She is struggling with committing lines to a page; she has some experience with digital art, but perhaps less with analog materials. She looks on at a fellow student whose works seem to come effortlessly and in refined form. Beside her is her bestie, Diego, a friend from kindergarten.
Amy’s parents are heading out to an anniversary cruise to the Arctic, and she is heading to the house of her maternal grandmother’(Lao Lao) for a week. Lao Lao has a background in antiquities and art. Amy expects a boring stay, but it is anything but!
At Lao Lao’s apartment above a restaurant in Chinatown in Queens, NY, Amy discovers a jade-handled paintbrush that mysteriously materializes whatever she draws. The created contents are often just unusual simulations of the actual object. Early works she makes include a empty orange, a plastic chocolate bar, and Styrofoam grapes. Later on, a brush-crafted boba tea experience offers a synesthetic experience.
At one point, Amy draws her imaginary friend, Luna: a creature with a bird head, toucan beak, and tiger’s body. Amy chases this creature through a restaurant:
The restaurant was in pandemonium. Silver dim sum carts lay overturned on
their sides. Sesame balls rolled across the red carpet and bowls of sweet tofu
flower pudding mingled with puddles of saucy spareribs. Amy nearly slipped on
a stream of chicken congee.
Indeed, the story is told with verve and humor. In Guilin, China, Chen Wong, a spoiled scion of a nouveau riche family has been “sent down” for embarrassing the family with his spoiled ways. He sees a painting of a taotie (a mythical monster whose name means “glutton”) come alive when the magic paintbrush is activated. He learns of the magic paintbrush and orders the monster to seek it out and return it to him. In no time, the monster is in NYC at Lao Lao’s apartment.
Zhang and Darnell’s The Magic Paintbrush is a delicious read. It wrangles with ideas of where artful inspiration comes from and how to engage the muse. It shows a young artist finding her vision and working through her insecurities as she practices and develops her skills.
The book is engagingly illustrated by Phoebe Zhong, with imaginative visual depictions throughout the text. (The images are grayscale, though, and full color would have been cooler.)
The Magic Paintbrush highlights the thrill of artful creation, the thrill of expressing imagination, the warmth of family and friendships, the thrill of doing good, and the resonance of an ancient culture, come to life through people into the present. It asks a question, too, of what future people want to imagine for themselves and for others.
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
