Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

32 p., Candlewick, 2004. Criticism by others can lead to painful self-criticism and shutting down. Ramon loves to draw, but when his brother laughs at him, and hints that his drawings don't look like what he means them to look like, he questions himself. He can't make his drawings look "right." Finally, he stops drawing altogether. Then he discovers that his sister, Marisol, has been rescuing his discarded drawings and hanging them on her walls. The one that his brother had laughed at is one of Marisol's favorites. When Ramon says that it doesn't look like a vase of flowers, Marisol replies that it looks "vase-ish." As he looks at his drawings on her walls, he realizes that they really do look "ish", and gives himself permission to think and draw "ish-ly." He even begins to write "ish-ly." He lives "ishfully ever after." With expressive, charming, yet somehow scribbly-looking, illustrations rendered in ink, watercolors, and tea, this story shows children how to allow themselves to create from who they are, rather than what they think (or they think others think) they should be. Ages 4-9