I'm the best artist in the ocean by Kevin Sherry - review

I'm the best artist in the ocean by Kevin Sherry
The return of the squid! More from the talented creator of I'm The Biggest Thing in the Ocean (recommended earlier as a Best Picture Book for Hipsters, and also children).

Kevin Sherry is the Baltimore boy who makes all the coolest t-shirts. He went to our local art school, he visits our library. You might think I'd praise his books just as a matter of course. Hm. You'd probably be right. But anyway. I'm the best artist in the ocean takes Kevin's grandiose little squid with the optimistic disposition, slaps a mustache on him and gives him a bunch of brushes loaded with 100% squid ink (it says so, in the illustration note!).

And what do you know, too, this squid can draw! The savvy adult reader will notice interpretations of Miro and Picasso, styles both abstract and cartoony, and Cthulhu, who generally has NO place in a children's book.

When I read this aloud, I'll do the squid's lines with an outrageous French accent to match his silly mustache. And I will have them rolling in the aisles when I deliver the punch line, an inclusive, art-positive yodel of self-expression.