Published by Little Bee Books

Summary:  Young Josette Bobette lives in a house filled with paintings, many of them portraits of family members.  One day she realizes that there are no portraits of her stuffed rabbit Pepette, so she goes out into the streets of Paris to try to find a painter.  It’s the 1920’s, when artists were everywhere, so she has no trouble finding someone who will do the portrait.  Each man has his own style, but none satisfies Josette and Pepette.  Returning home at the end of the day, Josette decides the only way to get what she wants is to do it herself.  She gets out her own box of paints, and pretty soon Pepette’s portrait is hanging with the other family members’.  An author’s note identifies the various painters Josette meets as Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Henri Matisse.  40 pages; ages 4-8.

Pros:  A charming story, as well as an introduction to the works of early 20^th century artists.

Cons:  It’s hard to get a sense of the artists’ styles from the small pictures of Pepette that are in the illustrations.