I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

Beaumont, Karen. I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!. Orlando: Harcourt, 2005.

Oh the joy of possessing a pot of paint or two or three or ten! Until your momma catches you painting pictures "on the floor and the ceiling and the walls and the curtains and the door." And she plops you in the tub and puts your paints and brushes up high in the closet where you can't reach. Author Karen Beaumont's rollicking refrain of "I ain't gonna paint no more, no more, I ain't gonna paint no more" follows a little boy as he retrieves his pots of paint and brushes from way up high and, unable to resist the urge, proceeds to paint himself from head to toe. David Catrow's increasingly paint splattered black and white pen illustrations accompany the little boy as he paints his head red, his back black and his leg "like an Easter egg." The, at first abundant, white space disappears; as page by page every surface is covered with dripping, streaming, flowing rivers of color. Preschool children will enjoy this thrill ride of a book right up to the jolting end where, sitting once more in the tub, the budding Monet intones, "Y'all don't faint...'cause there ain't no paint! So I ain't gonna paint no more!"