Still Life

“London and Zelinsky have created something unendingly fun but also deeply meaningful: Art takes on a life of its own, no matter how much the artist thinks the work can be controlled!” —Brian Selznick, Caldecott Medal–winning author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret

A still life painting is a painting where everything is supposed to stay still. But what if it doesn’t? Acclaimed author Alex London and Caldecott Medal–winning artist Paul O. Zelinsky bring exquisite life and adventure to this slyly funny and inventive picture book for fans of Christopher Denise’s Knight Owl and Corinna Luyken’s The Book of Mistakes. 

Every young artist has drawn or painted a still life scene. Perhaps it is a bowl of fruit, or a toy, or a vase of flowers, or a chair. The only rule is that a still life painting must stay still.

But staying still is hard! Especially for a curious mouse and a hungry dragon and a no-nonsense princess. Will the artist notice that his still life painting is breaking all the rules?

From award-winning author Alex London and Caldecott Medal–winning artist Paul O. Zelinsky, Still Life is a funny, subversive, and clever picture book that brings a painting to wildly imaginative life. Readers will pore over all the silly and surprising details in the illustrations—which tell a story of daring rescues, dashing heroes, and found friends. With its inventive humor, Still Life is for readers of Battle Bunny and David Ezra Stein’s Interrupting Chicken.