Miró's Magic Animals

A charming narrative about the surrealist painter Joan Miró, from the perspective of the author as a young boy. (The author is the son of Roland Penrose and Lee Miller, artists and friends of Miró.) Penrose recalls Miró's visits to the Penrose farm in Sussex, England, and the delight with which Miró quietly observed the world around him.

The narrative oscillates between relating Miró's paintings to everyday farm objects and animals and recalling his life in Spain and visits to the zoo in London. The text questions readers about what they see in the paintings but also implores them to find "imagination and magic" in everything they look at. Photographs, many taken by Miller; reproductions of Miró's work; and specially commissioned drawings by real children complement and support one another and the writing. Readers gain an understanding of what the artist looked like, how he worked, and the animals he looked at to make his work. Throughout the book, a peppering of children's illustrations, drawn in a Miró-like way, support the idea of embracing the unusual and wondrous.