Emma's Rug

From Publishers Weekly
As a small child, Emma has two noteworthy practices: she stares for long periods at the fuzzy white rug she has had since birth, and she spends quite a bit of time drawing intently. When she enters school and garners many prizes for her artwork, it becomes clear that the seemingly blank rug is the source of her inspiration. Knowing more than Emma's mother, youngsters will wish they could intervene when she decides, soon after Emma is feted as the winner of a citywide art competition, that the now-dingy rug needs a washing and throws it into the machine. Caldecott Medalist Say's (Grandfather's Journey) deftly understated tale leaves ample room for readers' own interpretations. Yet it is his superb visual images, which have the semblance of faultlessly composed photographs, that make the most indelible mark here. As he has so affectingly accomplished with the characters in his previous works, Say fills Emma's face with abundant expression; her moments of anguish when she thinks she has lost the source of her art and her subsequent despondency seem wrenchingly real. Equally convincing is the child's tentative hopefulness when, in the book's most innovative picture, she spies the faces of many intriguing creatures (which Say hides playfully around her) begging to be drawn. An impressive creation, to be appreciated on many levels. All ages. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3?Emma's small, plain white rug has been with her since her birth. What makes the child unusual, however, is not her love for her blanket, but her precocious artistry. In kindergarten her paintings amaze her teachers; in first grade she wins top prize in school, citywide, and other competitions. Emma is not impressed by her success: she "only looked at her rug." Comes the day when Mother puts the never-cleaned mat into the washer. It emerges ragged and thin. Emma is devastated and ceases to paint, days later disposing of all her work, awards, materials?and rug. Then, on the now-bare wall of her room, she seems to catch sight of something. Rushing outside, she recognizes the denizens of her imagination and artist's eye, creatures "she had thought she would never see again." On the last page, she is putting pencil to paper. Adults, certainly, will make the connection between the tabula rasa of Emma's rug and the projections of her imagination. Readers who do not see all the subtlety of this story may still be delighted by the watercolors?both Emma's childlike ones and Say's luminous evocation of her world, exterior and interior (the picture of Emma's anguish at her rug's fate is wrenching). Even baseboards and floorboards are eloquent as Say paints them. A tale about nothing less than the coming-to-consciousness of an artist who, in her seventh year, already feels her very identity inextricable from the making of art.?Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RICopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Ages 4^-8. From infancy, Emma has loved her rug. She carries it everywhere, and she stares at the rug for hours. Her parents don't get it ("What do you see in that fuzzy thing?"). When Emma begins to draw and paint, she amazes everyone. At school, she wins medals for her art, even a city prize presented to her by the mayor. Emma is impervious to the celebrity hype. In answer to the inevitable question, "Where do you get your ideas?" she is cryptic, "I just copy." Say's exquisite watercolors show a small Japanese American child, solitary and independent. Then disaster strikes: in the gray, efficient basement, Mother dumps the "dirty" rug in the washing-machine. All of Emma's quiet explodes in a picture of violent anguish: hair streaming, fingers clutching, mouth shrieking. She gives up, dumps all the art stuff--until one day she glimpses something wild and beautiful on the wall of her room, and as she rushes outside, she sees that she is part of Monet's glorious garden, with all her imaginary creatures around her. She starts to draw again. This is a departure from the usual story about a lost security blanket or teddy bear. Kids might like to hear it with Anthony Browne's Willy the Wizard , about a sports star's "magical" boots. Say gives Emma respect. Every outsider will feel her lonely concentration and her strength. Hazel Rochman


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Gr 1-3Emma's small, plain white rug has been with her since her birth. What makes the child unusual, however, is not her love for her blanket, but her precocious artistry. In kindergarten her paintings amaze her teachers; in first grade she wins top prize in school, citywide, and other competitions. Emma is not impressed by her success: she "only looked at her rug." Comes the day when Mother puts the never-cleaned mat into the washer. It emerges ragged and thin. Emma is devastated and ceases to paint, days later disposing of all her work, awards, materialsand rug. Then, on the now-bare wall of her room, she seems to catch sight of something. Rushing outside, she recognizes the denizens of her imagination and artist's eye, creatures "she had thought she would never see again." On the last page, she is putting pencil to paper. Adults, certainly, will make the connection between the tabula rasa of Emma's rug and the projections of her imagination. Readers who do not see all the subtlety of this story may still be delighted by the watercolorsboth Emma's childlike ones and Say's luminous evocation of her world, exterior and interior (the picture of Emma's anguish at her rug's fate is wrenching). Even baseboards and floorboards are eloquent as Say paints them. A tale about nothing less than the coming-to-consciousness of an artist who, in her seventh year, already feels her very identity inextricable from the making of art.Patricia (Dooley) Lothrop Green, St. George's School, Newport, RI


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