"The Painting"

“The Painting”
Written by Charis Cotter
Review written by Diana Iozzia



“The Painting” by Charis Cotter is a wonderful book for children to young adults. The book is about a girl named Annie who finds herself in a painting. Annie’s mother was recently in a car accident and lays in a hospital bed, in a coma. Annie finds herself in the painting’s lighthouse in Newfoundland, Canada, where she meets a girl, Claire, who thinks Annie is the ghost of her little sister.

This book becomes a gigantic mystery, who is Claire? Why was Annie able to be transported into the book? Who is Ms. Silver, the mysterious librarian that Annie speaks to? When we find out who Annie and Claire really are (in the first half), we’re unsure how the rest of the book will proceed. There are about a thousand things I can spoil, so this review will be quite vanilla in comparison to my other, more descriptive reviews.

This book reminds me of many books from my childhood. The author alludes to many similarities between “Alice in Wonderland”, by having a quote from “Through the Looking Glass” preceding every chapter. I also found this similar to “Matilda”, “Goosebumps”, “The Twilight Zone”, and “Coraline”. One of my biggest gripes about children characters is not at all present in this book. All too often, young children are portrayed inaccurately in books. This can include poor language, precocious language, too adult behaviors, or childish actions. Annie, eleven years old, and Claire, twelve years old, are portrayed very accurately as their ages. The best examples I can mention is the descriptions of the five senses that Claire and Annie use. Their metaphors and similes are exactly what you’d expect an almost ‘tween’ to use. Their characters are very realistic.

I do take issue with the dual perspectives. I usually don’t mind a couple of different perspectives in a book, as long as it is obvious which character is speaking when. Constantly, I found myself confused for a page or two as to whose perspective I am reading. A good trick is the different font, but even so, I was still confused when I didn’t notice the switch. This is easily one of my favorite novels for children, and I’ve just read it all in two days, maybe no more than four hours to five hours consuming this. I was honestly surprised how much I would like this, and how it’s instantly moved up into my favorite’s list for children’s literature. I am eager to read books in the future by Charis Cotter. Also, can I just mention how beautiful the cover and back art are for this book? Even though I received an ARC, this is beautiful. I’ll be tempted to pick up a finished copy at Barnes and Noble, because I can imagine a hard cover of this nifty little book would look great on my bookshelf.

*I received this as an advanced reader’s copy.*