The Magic Paintbrush

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The young man drew a large ship and grinned silently. The rich guy hopped onto the ship and set out to find the treasure, but when the ship reached the middle of the sea, Ma Liang created a tremendous wave that sank the ship, and the rich man was never seen again in the village. What’s this?” he said. He took his finger and very carefully, rubbed at the little purple spot. “OWWWWWWWWW!” he said. “It bit me!” Once he had the paintbrush, he felt very happy and he invited his friends to come to his home so that he could show them his new possession. He drew a lot of pictures, but none of them would come to life for him. He was very angry that the paintbrush would not work for him so he sent for Ma Liang. I tend to rate my read books more by the story rather than the illustrations but since these are picture books I'll do give my opinion on them, too. Each illustrator has their own style and niche and I appreciate each one I see but of course there will be ones I like more than others.

Oh it’s no good, you couldn’t” said Arthur. “It would have to be a different one. But look at my picture. There’s no room on it for another dinosaur. No room at all for any big animals. Look, here’s the tiger, and here’s the antelope, and there’s no more space for another big animal.” Oh no,” said Digby, realising what Arthur, in the excitement of painting a beautiful animal, had forgotten. “Oh the poor antelope! She is going to be eaten by that tiger! What shall we do?”Then the dinosaur made another ROAR and there was no doubt about it this time. It was HIS dinosaur painting that had made that sound. Could you paint a different kind of food?” said Digby, thinking of something different, because he really didn’t want to make Arthur have a sore in his mouth. “What about sweets? Or porridge? My triceratops liked that!” He drew a cow and it came to life when he observed how difficult it was for people to till the field. The cow might readily be used to plow the ground. I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him).

They both thought very hard. They were not sure if they imagined it, but the antelope seemed to look a bit scared. What could they do? The dinosaur is alive!” said Digby. “I painted him just now, and when I had finished painting him in, I think I spiked my finger on him! He’s really sharp! And he’s hungry. He’s already eaten one big bowl of porridge, a chocolate with a heart in the middle, and some jelly snakes.”

We can conclude the story with the moral lesson that greed is a harmful thing. As depicted in the magic paintbrush story, the rich man died because he was too greedy and wanted to become even richer.

Digby shrugged. “That wouldn’t be so bad,” he said. “Your tooth is already a bit wobbly, isn’t it?” Digby put his face very close to see if the pictures he’d painted had left any traces, like sometimes happens when you use an eraser to rub out your drawing that you did by mistake. But there was not a trace of the sweets and chocolate he had painted, or of the porridge. There was just one – slightly less hungry looking, and still very sharp, Triceratops. In Science we have been learning about materials. We have looked at different materials, sorted them by material and then their properties. Miss Boyle's class were taught some actions for each property by Miss Crossley. Can you remember any of them and tell your grown ups? We discussed why different objects are made from a certain material.Just then, as he was about to call his big brother Arthur, the dinosaur took one beady little eye and turned it towards Digby. He heard a tiny ROAR! like the sound of someone’s television on a different floor. Could it have been his dinosaur? He didn’t dare touch the mouth… She said she would love to come and visit our school so we could ask her, her mum, the old man and the Emperor some questions. He was overjoyed when he finally got his hands on the paintbrush, and he brought his pals around to see his new acquisition. He drew many pictures, but none of them seemed to come alive for him. When he saw it was difficult for people to till lands, he drew a cow and the cow came to life. People could use the cow to till lands very easily.