The Artist and the Lava Beast — Maria G. Mackavey

Children learn about colors as they follow an artist creating images on an empty canvas. Through the artist's imagination, the painting of fish, lava, houses, trees, and mountains begins to take on a life of its own. The story follows a lava beast that forms from the lava flowing down the middle of the painting. As in the natural world, the lava beast, who starts out as hot molten erupting out of the mountains, begins to change and slow down. Children are invited to empathize with the lava beast's feelings of confusion and sadness, as he experiences himself turning into cooled lava. In a dream encounter, the lava beast comes to understand who he is and where he comes from. Through this story, children explore the connection between imagination, dreams, and art as the story moves from the artist creating his painting to the imagined life of the images and back to the dreaming artist.