Jean, this story’s handsome, long-haired little boy, happens to have a very famous father — the artist Pierre Auguste Renoir. But the boy also has a problem. Despite Jean’s many protests, his father thinks Jean’s hair is too beautiful to be cut short. This renowned artist loves to use his son as a model in many of his paintings, and he insists that Jean is still young enough to keep his hair long. Meanwhile, the other kids often tease Jean, which makes him quite angry — and well-intentioned adults sometimes mistake Jean for a pretty girl, which annoys and embarrasses him.

How can Jean convince his dad that he’s old enough to have short hair? This gently amusing story for children is beautifully illustrated in a manner that resembles the painting style of Jean’s illustrious father, and includes several illustrations that are faithful reproductions of Renoir’s paintings. Of course, the senior Renoir finally relents, and young Jean Renoir does get his hair cut. Still later, as an adult, Jean becomes famous in his own right as a widely acclaimed film director.

Renoir and the Boy with the Long Hair is one more title in Barron’s fine series of books for children about world-famous artists and the young people who knew them.

Wendy Wax, a children’s book editor for several years, now writes and illustrates her own books. Wax is married to a commercial photographer and the mother of their young son, Jonah. She lives and works in New York City and Remsenburg, New York.

Nancy Lane has illustrated children’s books for 20 years. Her art training, at the Maryland Institute College of Art, included a semester studying in Rome and seeing Europe’s great collections. She lives in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York with her husband and children.

Appropriate for children ages 4–8.

Author — Wendy Wax.
Illustrator — Nancy Lane.

Hardcover. 32 pages. 10¾” × 8½” (27 cm × 21 cm).