French-Canadian author/illustrator team Marie-Danielle Croteau and Isabelle Arsenault craft an imaginative tale about the artist Paul Gauguin in this lovely picture-book. Following the Gauguin family as they sail for Peru, the narrative depicts Paul as an imaginative young boy with an invisible orange dog for a friend. The adults around him indulge Paul, when it comes to this imaginary canine companion, but when Mr. Gauguin dies of a heart attack on the sea voyage, the boy's ability to see things from a different perspective becomes very useful. Imagining the setting sun as his father's heart, he is comforted by its rise the next day. When the family arrive in Peru and Paul meets an artist, he begins to paint his father's heart...

Originally published in Montreal as Le coeur de monsieur Gauguin, this picture-book takes considerable license with the true story of Paul Gauguin's childhood, and is not intended, I do not think, as a biographical title. While the Gauguin family did travel to Peru, in 1850, and while M. Clovis Gauguin did indeed die of a heart attack during the course of that voyage, Paul Gauguin was an eighteen-month-old baby at the time, and would therefore not at that time have had any of the responses or feelings regarding the subject, that are depicted in Croteau and Arsenault's book. As a fictional story inspired by a factual one, I found Mr. Gauguin's Heart engaging, offering a thoughtful exploration of the role of imagination and artistic creation in coping with loss and grief. The artwork by Isabelle Arsenault has a painterly quality that feels quite different to some of her other books. The style here is quite different from that in The Honeybee, for instance. With the proviso that readers be aware that this is not a biographical or factual book, I would recommend this one to those seeking children's stories about death, grief and art. ( )

) This thought-provoking picture book introduces a young Paul Gauguin. As a child, he sails with his family from Denmark to Peru. While onboard ship, his father dies and Paul feels lost. He does not mourn like his mother and sister do. He watches as the giant sun sinks below the horizon and imagines his father’s heart. When his ship arrives in Peru, Paul, with the help of an elderly man, discovers that one can bring things to life with a paintbrush. Best suited to children aged 6 to 9, Mr. Gauguin’s Heart in an insightful and reflective look at grief and passion.