The Magical Drawings of Moony B. Finch

The Magical Drawings of Moony B. Finch
David McPhail ~ Doubleday, 1978

I will admit a huge soft stop for this man's drawings, made even more squishy by the fact that this has to be somewhat of a fantastical autobiography for the artist himself.Moony B. Finch loved to draw. For his second birthday he was given a box of crayons. After that, he spent most of his time drawing pictures. He drew and drew and the more he drew the better he got. Moony would draw pictures even when he didn't have any paper. In the summer, at the beach, he drew pictures in the sand with a stick. And in the winter, he grew giant pictures in the snow with his feet. He drew things inside and he drew things outside. He drew things he saw and he drew things he imagined. Moony had an eraser that he called his just-in-case eraser. He never used it, but he always carried it with him just in case he ever needed it.From here, the story gets pretty magical when the boy (or rather some greedy strangers) discover that his drawings come to life when touched. In the end, the artist prevails and his handy-dandy eraser (with a little help from a dragon) saves the day.With a dedication to one Ernest H. Shepard, it makes my heart melt thinking of little Mr. McPhail falling in love with the drawings of Winnie the Pooh and wanting to be an artist, too. A dear, sweet book, from a dear sweet artist whose scratchy faced boys have always enchanted me.

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