Because her Haitian family is too poor to be able to buy paints for her, eight-year-old Ti Marie finds her own way to create pictures that make the heart sing. Ti Marie dreams of being an artist. Whenever she gets some time away from watching her little sisters and helping Mama in their market stall, she finds a cement wall or a scrap of waste paper and lets her imagination soar. Using whatever she can find to make a mark–bits of red brick, charcoal, white rocks–Ti Marie makes beautiful art. If only she had real paint, brushes, and clean white canvas, what wonderful pictures she could paint then! But Mama says there is no money for such things. Still, Ti Marie finds a surprising way to make her dreams come true.
- ISBN: 9780688139018
- Author: Williams, Karen Lynn
- Illustrator: Stock, Catherine
- Published: 1998 , HarperCollins
- Themes: Art and artists, Dream, painting, Poverty, resourcefulness
- Descriptors: Caribbean, Haiti, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Picture Book, Realistic Fiction
- No. of pages: 40