It would be great to have a paintbrush,” Ma Liang said to himself every day. Ma Liang and the Magic Paintbrush

I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married.The young man smiled quietly and drew a big ship. The rich man jumped into the ship and set off to find the gold but when the ship sailed to the middle of the sea, Ma Liang drew a large wave which destroyed the ship and the rich man was never seen in the village again. When Liang went into the village he met an old farmer carrying water from the river to his field. It was a long walk and the man was very tired. Liang painted a river beside the field and the river came to life. Now the farmer could easily bring the water to his crops. Soon Liang met another villager who was crying because his cow had died in the night, and there was no milk for his children. Liang drew a cow, and it came to life. The villager was overjoyed and happily began to milk his cow. The story is about a girl called Shen who is given the amazing gift of a magic paintbrush. She is told never to paint for rich people but to use it to help the poor. But the emperor hears about Shen and decides he will use her gift to add to his already enormous wealth. Shen of course refuses and is thrown into jail by him. As her paintings come to life she finds a way to get herself out of jail and get rid of this horrible Emperor once and for all. Because Shen is a beautiful person she decides against it but finds a way for the whole village to live happily ever after.

Before Malcolm and I had our three sons we used to go busking together and I would write special songs for each country; the best one was in Italian about pasta. Why did you draw the sea?” said the rich man, “I told you to draw the mountain. I want gold, not fish!” If you have a child of pre-school or early school age it's likely you would have at least heard of Julia Donaldson, who, in her partnership with the illustrator Axel Scheffler has created several best-selling books for young children, including the most popular Gruffalo which spawned a true cult. Magic Paintbrush is also a Julia Donaldson's book, and it's also written in rhyme as most of her others, but it's not illustrated by Axel Scheffler and it's a different kind of book. I thoroughly enjoyed this fable, I loved the magic and hope within it- the teasing out that there is a difference between need and greed and that solidarity is owed more to some than to others. The book simply skims over any sort of internal conflicts (eg the consequences of not producing food- although I guess the point to to value also intellectual and artistic "work"; also e.g. any moral conflict- desire to please the emperor or fear by Shen) to have a simple movement where one thing logically follows the other- although she is imprisoned at one point.Ma Liang quietly walked away, his heart filled with disappointment. However, he remained composed and calm. In his mind, he thought, “I just don’t believe a poor child is not good enough to learn painting.” He said to the young man, "If you draw some pictures for me and bring them to life, I will set you free." Afterwards, you can ask children about the story. Who was the hero of the story? What were they doing that was good? What would your children draw if they had a magic paintbrush? But the magic paintbrush came to Ma Liang’s rescue once again. Using it, he drew a fire and a feast of piping-hot Chinese pancakes and stew. When the landlord’s men saw the food and fire, they knew that Ma Liang had used the brush, and the landlord became even more furious.