Wesley Dennis (1903–1966)

Benjamin West comes from a deeply religious family, and his Quaker beliefs forbid the creation of images. But Benjamin wants to draw. At first he makes do with a quill pen and black ink, but red foxes, green frogs, and autumn leaves demand color. He learns how to make paints using things he digs out of the earth. As for a paintbrush... well, that's where the cat Grimalkin comes into the story. With hairs from the black cat's uncommonly long tail, Benjamin makes his paintbrushes and creates show more his art.

Eventually he will be known as the father of American painting, but it all starts with a young boy and a cat. show less

Tumble the wild mustang is introduced, and then half the book is immediately given over to a brief history of horses in North America before coming back to Tumble and his capture by men who put the spirited steed in a rodeo as a bucking bronco. Tumble yearns to be free and jumps at the first chance that comes along.

With only a sentence or two per page, this spare and barely there tale is like a precursor to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and only takes a couple minutes to read.

Good little book from one of my favorite childhood authors. I never read this one as a kid, but my dad lost my old books so I recently bought a Marguerite Henry box set that includes this book.

Benjamin West is a 7- to 8-year-old Quaker boy a day's ride outside of Philadelphia. He and his large family run Door Latch Inn. Quakers don't have decor because life must be strictly practical. However, he dreams of painting. He adopts a black cat from a German boy that tried to rescue it, and named show more it Grimalkin. Grimalkin accompanies Benjamin from his first attempt at drawing, learning to use pigments from the Native Americans, meet important people in Philadelphia, and ultimately winning him a future outside conventional Quaker rules. That is history, and Henry weaves it into a comfy fictional narrative.

My main complaint is the pacing. We know what becomes of Benjamin in his adulthood, and this book focuses on his start. However, since it focuses on that first year or so, I kept feeling like I was still reading the first few chapters of a book--it didn't feel progressive. I'm not sure how Henry's writing had this effect on me, or if it was entirely just my mood.

Ultimately I put this story in the "sweet and simple" category. There's nothing truly wrong with it to me, but it also wasn't anything incredible. Just a gentle good. show less

So much is probably fabricated. Plausible, but not necessarily accurate. For example, it is likely that he was friendly with the "Indians" because otherwise how could he paint them so well when when adult? But I wish the actual Nation or Tribe were named, and I wish they weren't drawn with paint. Also I sure do wish some of his studies and early works were on google so I could see what so impressed his family and mentors when he was a boy.

But, as a sort of historical fiction, it is an show more interesting book. I'm glad I'm finding stories by MH that I missed. Perhaps it is best for we who are fans, and not great for today's young children. show less