Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810938782 ISBN 13: 9780810938786

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2009

Monsieur Degas likes to paint the students while they practice in ballet class they’ve inspired many of his beautiful paintings. But one day he mistakenly leaves his bag of paints in the dance studio and instead takes a young ballerina’s bag, which contains her new tutu for the evening’s recital! And so the ballerina begins a great chase to find Degas before her big night.
 
As she searches the streets of Paris, the ballerina encounters many other Impressionist painters, who are in the process of painting some of their great works. Monet, Renoir, Caillebotte, and Cassatt help the ballerina until she is reunited, at last, with Degas.
 
Featuring the original Impressionist paintings that inspired this picture book of historical fiction, along with an author’s note about Impressionism and this vibrant period in Paris, Chasing Degas will delight young lovers of art and ballet.

About the Author:

Eva Montanari is an internationally recognized author and illustrator whose work has been seen in calendars, books, posters, and magazines. She has been praised by Children’s Literature, which said, The acrylic and colored pencil illustrations that fill the pages . . . have strong impact.” She lives in Rimini, Italy.

From Booklist:

After a rehearsal, a young Parisian ballerina realizes that her satchel, supposedly containing her tutu for that evening’s recital, now holds tubes of paints. She deduces that Monsieur Degas must have mistaken her bag for his, and she rushes off to find him. Along the way, she meets a series of artists, including Monet, Caillebotte, Renoir, and Cassatt, working at their easels. Although the settings suggest certain famous paintings that they are working on when the ballerina meets them, the style of the illustrations does not slavishly imitate that of the originals but takes off in its own fresh direction. The flow of lines and forms in the pictures gives them a fittingly musical sensibility. This picture book has a certain charm that makes it more than an introduction to these well-known artists. A discussion of impressionist painters is appended along with small reproductions of the six well-known paintings referenced in the story. Preschool-Grade 3. --Carolyn Phelan