Customer Reviews

Drawing Lessons

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

13-year-old Rory cannot deal with the fact that her father has left the family. She has closed herself down to the outside world, including her own mother, her father, whom she loves desperately, and her best friend. As if that wasn't enough, she has lost, she fears, the artistic talent which she inherited from her father. Rory's world is clearly delineated here-the mother who works too hard to provide the family's financial necessities, the father driven to paint, even though he is unsuccessful financially, his reluctance to get a paying job of any sort, her mother's yearning not to have to work so long and so hard, and Rory's relationship with her dearest friend, who is developing an interest in the opposite sex that Rory does not yet have. An excellent book.

Reviewer: A former librarian in the children/young people's department of a public library. When I was head of the Children/Young People's section of our library, it was a challenge to find good books for this age group. So, when a friend gave me Tracy Mack's book, Drawing Lessons, I was curious to see if it would prove to be one that I would put on our shelves. After reading it, I was thrilled to discover a beautifully told story of a young artistically gifted girl who endures a painful family problem. I shall pass it to my young niece with confidence and pleasure.

As an artist, Rory's father has shared his wisdom and passion for drawing with such clarity and understanding that his words echo with in her. He has been the primary influence on her life. But when Rory discovers her dad in a compromising position with one of his models, her world changes. This is not simply a novel about divorce or separation. Rory has to face the very adult realization that her father may be something less than she envisioned. Rory's conflict with her father affects her relationships with her mother, best friend, favorite teacher and ultimately her art. How these emotions and relationships will be resolved create the tension and action in this novel. Tracy Mack depicts a memorable character who has the vision and heart of a gifted artist, but who faces a problem that we all eventually must -- what happens when the people we love and respect do not live up to the standards we have set for them. Her dad says that the great thing about painting is that "you can create your imaginary world to live in," but, for Rory, painting allows her to "bring back something you'd lost and keep it forever." This novel in a concise and real manner, shows how art rehabilitates and unifies. There are no easy answers here and no neat conclusions, but instead, a story with emotional and psychological depth. If you have a young adult in your life, share Drawing Lessons with them.

Aurora is an artist like her father, but when her family splitsup she denies her art and needs to find a different way of beingconnected to family and the world in this moving, subtle story of a girl's coming of age and encounter with divorce. A charged, involving story.

7th grader Rory is a budding artist, inspired and guided by her father's passionate instruction and vision. Her mother is the breadwinner in the family, and must forego her own visions of independence in order to pay the bills while her husband's art career hits inevitable peaks and valleys.

The strain between Rory's parents boils over when Rory catches her father in an embrace with one of his models. Shortly thereafter, Rory's father leaves their suburban New York home and takes up residence in Brooklyn. Although he writes regularly to Rory, he never addresses his infidelity, or his relationship with Rory's mother.

Feeling abandoned and betrayed, Rory watches her artistic ambition and inspiration, once limitless and remarkably mature, rot away inside of her like the giant, dying tree that is symbolically cut down at the novel's beginning, foreshadowing the sea change about to send Rory's emotions into chaos.

Rory is a completely believable protagonist whose swirling, confused, private universe is painted sharply yet tenderly by first-time novelist Mack. While readers less interested in art themselves may feel that the metaphor is occasionally strained, the power of Mack's images is undeniable: "The woods closed in around me, hard browns, flat greens. I tried to pull some air into my lungs, and it hurt. My legs were burning. But I pushed myself through the woods, through some strange picture in my mind. I was aiming straight for the vanishing point. I wanted more than anything to get there, to the end of the painting."

It is not often that a book that deals so singularly with one character's introspection can be classified as a "page-turner," but eager readers, especially girls Rory's age, will finish "Drawing Lessons" in one sitting.

Noteworthy in a book so intertwined with notions of color, light, and line is the design of the book itself, an attractive, gift-quality assemblage of matte dust-jacket, textured endpapers in muted peach, and gentle script chapter openings embellished with a subtle oak-leaf motif.

A fitting presentation for this small but wondrous gift of a story.

I got this book from a friend and I loved reading it.
It makes you wonder what on earth is going to happen next and it's very interesting to read.
I love this book!
I would reccomend this book to anyone who wants to understand the tough things in life and how to fix them.
You should read this book no matter how old you are.

Rory is a high-school student and a talented artist. The artistic part isn't surprising--her father is a painter and has been teaching Rory how to draw and paint since she was a very small child. Her happiest memories involve her father and art. So it is especially devastating when Rory finds her father kissing another woman. When he leaves her and her mother, Rory feels like it is her fault for confronting him and being so angry.

With her father gone, Rory loses her ability to draw or paint. She tries to remember the things he taught her, but she can't hear his voice any longer. It seems she may never regain her artistic abilities, unless her father agrees to come home again.

This story has a good premise, but I felt like it was too short to really address how Rory would be okay again. Being able to talk to her father would certainly help, but I think she would also have to focus on her relationship with her mother. Both of them were broken after her father left, and in order to get their lives back they would have to learn to rely on each other more. Nothing in this story dealt with that relationship. Instead, the author made it seem like Rory would be fine as long as she had her father's support, regardless of her mother's state of mind.

I thought that this was an okay book. It's definitely not one of my favorites, and I wouldn't really recommend it. There are some things I liked about it and some things that I didn't like about it.
One reason I didn't like it was because in the opening scene, the main character (Rory) was outside watching her dad cut down a tree in their yard and she was talking about how great the tree was. And when I first started reading it, I was like "okay, she must really like that tree," but after about 20 pages of her talking about this tree, you get annoyed and don't want to read it anymore. The only reason I kept reading it was because it was for school and it was incredibly easy to read so I kept reading. I also didn't like it because I didn't think that the author described things in the book too well. When I read a book I like to know what each character looks like but in this story she really didn't give much to what the people and environment were like. I also didn't like how they kept talking about drawing and how to draw and everything, so that got kind of boring.
So I finished the book. And it didn't get much better. But there were some things I kind of liked about it. For most of the book, I could really relate to what Rory was going through. I think most girls have a friend that they start to lose, and most teenage girls have an off-and-on relationship with her parents, so that's why I kept reading. The way the author had the girls act around boys and teachers and their parents is very realistic so I think anybody reading it knows exactly what the characters in the book are going through. I think that teenage girls who love to draw would like this book.

Drawing Lessons by Tracy Mack tells about girl named Rory. She lives with her two parents and has a best friend named Nicole. Rory and her father both love to paint, and do it all the time. One day Rory finds out that her father is seeing another woman. Rory's father leaves the house, and Rory becomes very depressed. She stops drawing and painting all together, and when Nicole gets a boyfriend, Rory feels very left out and hurt. The characters and plot are perfect for the story line. This is a surprising story and I would definately reccomend it to any of my friends.

Drawing Lessons shows how dispute and change in a family affects children. It shows how if you take the sadness and pain and bottle it up, you can release it to be something much more beautiful.