The Starry Night — Neil Waldman

On a summer day in Central Park, a boy meets a man named Vincent. He is a painter, and the picture on his old wooden easel shows the park's daffodils in all their yellow splendor. The painting captures the boy's imagination. Soon Vincent and the boy are exploring Manhattan, from Battery Park to Harlem, from Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village. Vincent paints the city in bright and beautiful colors. Then one day he takes the boy to a museum. He leads him to a painting of a country village. No sooner does the boy recognize the painting as one of Vincent's than his friend disappears. But Vincent has left the boy a gift: the desire to paint a picture. Neil Waldman's special book, featuring stunning Van Gogh-inspired paintings of Manhattan, speaks to that part of a child that knows no limits -- the imagination.