The Magic Paintbrush

Product Information

The children create their own dragon-like monsters through playing Mix and Match Monsters and record ideas by drawing and labelling a diagram. In this ten-session Writing Root, which we suggest will take 3 weeks to cover, the children discover a magic paintbrush and are asked what they would paint with it. Clever book with wonderful problem solving skills shown and a delightful tale of a little girl with a moral task to complete. This was one of the stories included my show “The Gruffalo, the Witch and the Warthog” which we performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 and took to a few other theatres.

It can also be a springboard to explore Chinese culture and celebrations for children, particularly Chinese New Year and the Chinese Zodiac. With her magic paintbrush, Shen can paint steaming pots full of fish and oysters to feed the hungry people in her village, but when the evil emperor hears of her gift he commands Shen to paint gold for him instead. When the evil emperor commands Shen to paint gold for him, she is determined to keep her promise to paint only for the poor.

The Magic Paintbrush is a traditional Chinese folktale, dealing with themes of justice and integrity.

I went to China Town in Manchester and purchased a real coolie hat some simple books with Chinese letter to copy. As well as writing and illustrating wonderfully quirky books, Joel is a keen banjo player and adores comic strips.It tells the story of Shen who receives a magical paintbrush with instructions to paint for the poor as the paintings come to life. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Complimented by beautiful water colour illustrations which brings out the purity of the underlying message, the story gently builds up to a dramatic climax. Her other books include The Hospital Dog illustrated by Sara Ogilvie, The Christmas Pine illustrated by Victoria Sandøy and the hugely successful What the Ladybird Heard adventures illustrated by Lydia Monks.

This edition features a stunning redesigned cover, making it a must-have addition to the bookshelves of all Donaldson fans - big and small! This edition features a stunning redesigned cover, making it a must-have addition to the bookshelves of all Donaldson fans – big and small!

In The Magic Paintbrush, Julia Donaldson's brilliant verse combines with beautiful illustrations from Joel Stewart, creator of The Adventures Abney and Teal , to bring vibrant life to a traditional tale of how a little girl's integrity can withstand the corruption of power and greed. JD has stamped her distinctive rhythm into making this re-telling a very atmospheric book of how a little girl's life changes when she is given a magic brush which turns anything she paints into real life. The story is based on a traditional Chinese tale which has been retold many times across Asia and it is probably one of the most popular stories passed on from generation to generation. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.