If you are an artist in any way (poetry, painting, sculpture, etc) you probably have had some form of “artist anxiety” (or what I call it). What Sarah Lynne Reul calls it in Boxed In (which honestly is a bit better). Our story follows a young girl who does not want to use her new paint set because what if she makes a mistake? New things deserve perfection. And she fears making mistakes.
Due late February 2027, Reul explores this other kind of “artist block” (in writing it is “I am both inspired and intimidated by this beautiful piece of white, blank, perfect sheet of paper and/or this is my new pen and I just don’t want to waste the ink on nothing short of genius) when someone is unable to pull the cap off the paint and put it to the canvas/paper. The young artist and her grandfather explore this issue in a fun, colorful and creative way.
The cover gives you some of the idea of what you’ll find inside. But like any piece of art, you really never know and things can not always look the way expected, but comes out even better. And while at first I wasn’t “loving all the art” I learned to really get into it and got “messy” right along with our characters.
The publisher’s description uses “constrained by perfectionism” as the way a child might feel, but of course, adults feel it too, so they might learn a thing or two about their own need for not taking the leap for fear. Otherwise this is good for ages five and up. Read via an online reader copy, but I’m thinking of getting several copies in February. It is going to be a big gift book of the season (and a keeper for yourself as well).
