by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 03, 2010

"He could draw so well that sometimes what he drew became real."

It's the second sentence of a very imaginative story by David McPhail called "Moony B. Finch, the Fastest Draw in the West." The book's jacket says McPhail "loves to draw as much as Moony does." Maybe the story is the author-illustrator's way of fulfilling one of his own wishes!

"Moony might draw a kangaroo. Then he would lay his hand on the drawing and the kangaroo would just right off the page..." It's a great premise, and the adventure starts when Moony draws an old-fashioned locomotive while he's exploring an abandoned railroad track. "Suddenly, the earth trembled beneath Moony's feet and then the screech of a train whistle pierced the air..."

There's funny passengers on the train - two singing hens, a family of raccoons, and even a sleeping cowboy. It's like a dream, where anything can happen, and soon the cowboy is robbing the other passengers with his gun. "The two hen sisters had nothing to give, so they spit into the robber's hat." And the raccoons contribute a buttery half-eaten ear of corn, prompting the robber to abandon the formalities of robbery, and complain like a little boy.

"Yuck! You'll get my hat all greasy..."

The robber insists Moony draw a picture of him, which ends the robbery. (Moony's eraser lets him erase the robber's gun.) "It was only a cap pistol, anyway," one of the animals sneers. And then Mooney erases the robber's pants, making all the animals laugh. The embarrassed robber runs away, where he's apprehended by the train's conductor.

It's a story about imagination, with its own gentle magic. But McPhail has used a similar idea in several of his other stories. In "Edward and the Pirates," a little boy imagines himself into the books he checks out from the library. And McPhail also wrote a popular series of books about a simple animal character named Pig Pig, who imagines himself into a series of careers in "Pig Pig Gets a Job."

In this book, I wondered if McPhail had still hidden a subtle reference to his lucrative series of Pig Pig books. On the boy's imaginary locomotive, one of the passengers is a well-dressed pig - "who was dropping coins into a large satchel!" Maybe what he drew really did become real...

What I like most about this book is that McPhail uses realistic sketches, making the boy's powers seem even more magical. And this makes the ending even more charming. The boy can draw anything he wants, so he draws his house, with his mother and father sitting on the back step. And then he draws himself sitting happily between them - and the drawing makes his vision come true!

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