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The Magic Paintbrush

By Eric Darnell and Kat Zhang
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Brief Description
In this highly illustrated series launch, Amy, a Chinese American girl, picks up an ancient paintbrush and unwittingly unleashes the power to make her art real—and sometimes dangerous. Perfect for fantasy readers who love Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor and the Dragon Pearl series. In... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2100
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When Amy, a Chinese American girl, picks up an ancient paintbrush, it unwittingly unleashes the power to make her art real--and sometimes dangerous.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

In this highly illustrated series launch, Amy, a Chinese American girl, picks up an ancient paintbrush and unwittingly unleashes the power to make her art real—and sometimes dangerous. Perfect for fantasy readers who love Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor and the Dragon Pearl series.

In this highly illustrated series launch, Amy, an Asian American girl, picks up an ancient paintbrush and unwittingly unleashes the power to make her art real and sometimes dangerous. Perfect for fantasy readers who love Dragons in a Bag and the Dragon Pearl series.

The Magic Paintbrush is described as "Gorgeous and gripping," sweeping readers off on a rip-roaring fantasy adventure that unfurls like a magnificent scroll. It's brimming with imagination and heart, according to Soman Chainani, author of The School for Good and Evil series.

Amy has always loved art, but lately, her drawings have been less than impressive. There's no passion, no personality, no... magic. Until Amy visits her Lao Lao, her grandmother, and finds an ancient paintbrush that brings anything Amy creates to life!

Now her creation, Luna, has taken over her bedroom and is running through the streets of Flushing, Queens. What awaits is an international adventure filled with an ancient Chinese legend, a greedy adversary, and ghastly beasts!

Award-winning author Kat Zhang teams up with Eric Darnell, the writer and director of the Madagascar series and the Chief Creative Officer of Baobab Studios, to create a captivating, highly illustrated middle-grade series debut about finding your own path, the power of imagination, and the strength of family.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780593179963

Publisher: Random House USA Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 July 2025

Country: United States

Imprint: Random House Inc

Illustration: ILLUSTRATIONS

Audience: Children

DIMENSIONS

Width: 132.0mm

Height: 194.0mm

Weight: 300g

Pages: 256

Collections

Children's Books Children's Fiction Children’s, Teenage and Educational Eric Darnell Kat Zhang Penguin Books Young Adult

About the Author

Kat Zhang loves traveling to places both real and fictional-the former have better souvenirs, but the latter allow for dragons, so it's a tough pick! She wrote the young-adult series The Hybrid Chronicles, the middle-grade novels The Emperor's Riddle and The Memory of Forgotten Things, and the Amy Wu picture book series. Like Amy, Kat once thought being serious about art meant losing her "childish" fun but soon came to realize that fun was the most important part of all. Eric Darnell is Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of Baobab Studios, the world's leading independent interactive animation studio. Under Eric's leadership, Baobab Studios has won 10 Emmys, 2 Annie's, and first ever SIGGRAPH Immersive Best in Show Award. Baobab's latest VR piece, Baba Yaga, made its world premiere at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. Eric's career spans 25 years, and he is the second highest box office grossing writer and director of animated feature films, and was the director and screenwriter on all four films in the Madagascar franchise and an executive producer on The Penguins of Madagascar. Previously, Eric directed DreamWorks Animation's very first animated feature film, Antz. Phoebe Zhong is a character designer, visual developmental artist, and illustrator based in Beijing

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