Twenty Heartbeats

by Dennis Haseley

A SIMPLE STORY LAYERED WITH MEANING; stunning layered artwork by an acknowledged master.A wealthy Chinese man dreamt of a painting of his favorite horse. He sought out a man named Homan, known as a great painter of horses and commissioned the portrait. Then he waited'and waited'and waited. As the years passed, his hair grew gray, and he grew furious. What was taking so long? Dennis Haseley's simple story about the nature of art and the value of time...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1596432381
• ISBN13: 9781596432383
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.8" x 11.2"
• Age Range: 5 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Kindergarten to Grade 4

Customer Reviews

Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children

A wealthy man wished to commission a painting of his majestic horse. He asked Homan, a distinguished painter of horses, to do the portrait, and he gave Homan a large bag filled with gold. After Homan briefly saw and touched the horse, he left. Much to the wealthy man's chagrin, year upon year passed without any word from the painter. Angry that Homan may have stolen his gold, the man paid an unexpected visit to Homan's studio and learned an even more surprising lesson about patience and vision. Told in succinct prose and illustrated with exquisite collages, Twenty Heartbeats provides readers with an interesting message about wealth and human resources, neatly wrapped into a clever story with an unpredictable ending.

A treasure

This book was on a list of the 10 Most Beautiful Children's Books for 2008 and it certainly deserved that. It's a storybook for older children about an emperor who commissions a painting of his favorite horse and has to wait many years while the artist creates the painting over and over to reduce it to the simplest and most evocative representation. It's a delightful story and subtly teaches lessons about Zen painting, patience, and getting things right. Very Zen, very lovely.

I loved this more than my daughter

When we search for books at the library, a horse on the cover gets my child's immediate attention. How pleased I was to find this beautiful tale of patience and skill, but my five year-old was disappointed to learn that this was not a galloping pony tale. However, this book prompted a discussion about how much dedication it takes to perform a task well. While the rich man waited years for a painting of his beloved horse, the master painter Homan drew thousands of illustrations of the animal until he finally got it right. If your child is just beginning to show interest in a talent--be it soccer, violin, or drawing--this book serves as a reminder to keep pursuing their passion and to never quit. Yes, the old "practice makes perfect" mantra. The book is well-paced and provides good suspense with spare, yet beautiful language. The illustrations summon historic China, and the use of collage is a playful element in an otherwise subdued color palate. This is a book that prompts reflection and discussion between parent and child. It's a lovely story that I appreciated far more than my daughter, so I might suggest readers be slightly older than five. That being said, all ages will enjoy the tale's message. Four and a half stars.

Zen for the read-to-me kid

Hasely retells a classic story - one that looks a bit beyond the effortless ease of a master, to see understand the long discipline and effort from which effortlessness arises. It runs somewhat against the self-esteemist grain of the "everybody's a star" philosophy so prevalent in grade-school teaching these days. That's a good thing, I think; not all efforts have equal results, and not all gratifications are immediate. Young's illustrations carry the story well, even if his style seems less than memorable. He builds his imagery up from collages of patterned papers, with details that seem to be added in colored pencil. The story has been one of my favorites for many years, even if the details of this version are new to me. This children's rendering comes across well, even if I haven't kid-tested it yet, with its quiet lessons in skill, patience, and even a little bravery. -- wiredweird