Alex Beard - MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DRAW | Octavia Books | New Orleans, Louisiana

Start: 01/25/2011 4:00 pm

End: 01/25/2011 5:30 pm

“These lithe, game-loving animals seem to swirl across the pages in stylized pen-and-ink and watercolor pictures that are both comedic and beautiful (the style is in keeping with Beard’s The Jungle Grapevine).”
—Publishers Weekly

“Wild and wonderful.”
—Kirkus

Please join us for a special afternoon of storytelling, booksigning and hands-on art when beloved children’s author and critically-acclaimed fine artist Alex Beard returns to Octavia Books for the New Orleans release of MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DRAW. This fun fable from Africa is a follow-up to his wildly popular first picture book The Jungle Grapevine. Readers will find new creative inspiration as a group of mischievous monkeys learn lessons in overcoming fears and unleashing their inner artist—without making fun of or competing against one another.

The monkeys who live at the foot of the Mbuno Hills in Africa love to play games. One day while playing “Elephant in the Middle” with their large friend, their “ball,” which is really a nut from an ancient baobab tree, rolls into a cave where the troop of monkeys never go. It is dark and possibly filled with horrible beasts! When they finally venture in, they discover that the walls are covered with beautiful paintings of animals. Eager to create their own artwork, Elephant shows the monkeys how they too can paint with mud using their hands and feet as stamps. But things are never quite as easy as they seem.

Combing a wildly imaginative story with important life lessons, MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DRAW is a great book for young readers, while offering parents and teachers the chance to incite lively discussions about geography, art history, and environmental conservation.

Alex Beard is an a painter and author who has emerged as one of his generation's most creative and successful artists. Through his work, he hopes to demystify art and share the creative experience with as many people as possible, using every tool he can find. Influenced to think creatively from a young age by his uncle, noted photographer Peter Beard, Alex grew up among some of the world's most interesting and influential people -- Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, and their Pop World cohorts were familiar faces in the Beard household. Alex's French Quarter and New York City Studios have not just been chic destinations, but open to the public in a way that has encouraged and fostered interaction between the artist and his audience. A firm believer that art is a medium that should be accessible to everyone, Alex uses uncommon avenues to share the creative experience with people of all ages. He is also the author of The Jungle Grapevine, which Publishers Weekly called “visually compelling.”