The Picture of Morty and Ray
Kimberli
Written by Daniel Pinkwater
Illustrated by Jack E. Davis
Morty and Ray watch a movie at night about a man who has a painting made of him. As the man does more and more mean things, the painting becomes uglier. Morty and Ray think this is neat, and paint a picture of themselves. They do bad things too, to see if their painting becomes ugly. Do you think their painting will become ugly, like the one in the movie?
I liked the use of cunning in this book. It's easy to read, and even though you know Morty and Ray are going to do bad things, you wonder if their painting will change the same way the man's did. It's a simple, fun story. It has a sort of quick, muddled ending, but overall it's a "what if..." story that concludes the only way it really can. Pinkwater is a clever writer.