Masterpiece, by Elise Broach

This book was published in 2008. It had 290 pages and 38 chapters, so the chapters were pretty short, roughly 7 pages per. I read the whole thing in one day, on February 8. I like it when I read a book in a day. There are many pictures in it, drawn by Kelly Murphy. Interesting. With the last book I read by Broach, Shakespeare's Secret, she let Brett Helquist do the cover art. Anyway, the story is basically about a little raisin-sized beetle named Marvin (I wish I knew why) and a young boy named James. Marvin lives in James's house with his whole family of beetles. When Jame's turns 11, he gets a pen and ink set from his dad, and Marvin draws a picture with it as a present for James, not really thinking about the consequences. I won't reveal the rest of the story, but Marvin's writing style is said to mirror the style of the late Albrecht Durer, and there's art forgery involved.

I'm not sure how I liked this book, since it's about young characters. I shouldn't be reading these kind of books anymore. But I would definitely recommend this to beginning readers. It reminds me of that old Beverly Cleary classic, what was it, the Mouse and the Motorcycle? Also the Pixar movie Ratatouille. Like, it's an animal doing something that everyone else thinks the human is doing. Basically I would give Masterpiece a B minus, if I was to be handing out grades. Maybe someone like my 11 year old brother Adam would enjoy this more.

Here's the link to Elise Broach's website, though I personally think it looks a bit childish.