First Painter

A powerful, eerily beautiful book about self-expression -- and who the "first" painter might have been.

The moon of the singing grass has come and gone three times, and still there is no rain. Mishoo's prehistoric clan is starving, her little sister's arms like twigs. Can a Dream Catcher bring them rain? Mishoo's mother had been the clan's Dream Catcher. She spoke with spirits, trying to catch a dream of rain. Now she is a spirit herself. She tells a sleeping Mishoo: "You are Dream Catcher. You must go to the cave of the she-tiger." Mishoo dares to go-and there discovers rock that looks like dripping animal fat, rock like giant fangs from the saver-toothed tiger. Something stirs inside her. And as she picks up a charred stick from the fire and begins to draw the animal she sees buried in the stone, she wonders, "Am I catching spirits or being caught myself?" This powerful and strikingly original picture book provides a fascinating glimpse into the prehistoric world as it imagines who the first painter might have been.