An artist through and through, Marisol is initially stymied when she volunteers to paint the sky in the library mural her class is creating only to discover there’s no blue paint. But a bus ride home at sunset inspires a vivid, multi-sky-colored dream, and waiting for the bus in the rain the next morning affirms her realization that the sky isn’t always blue. She transforms observation into action, creating “sky color” from a whole mix of different paints to complete the mural. Peter H. Reynolds’s predominantly black-and-white, pen-and-ink illustrations incorporate explosions of color showing brown-skinned Marisol’s inspiration (the sunset-colored sky), her dream-world, and the mural she and her classmates create. (Ages 4–7)

The sky’s no limit as the author-illustrator of The Dot and Ish winds up his Creatrilogy with a whimsical tale about seeing the world a new way.

Marisol loves to paint. So when her teacher asks her to help make a mural for the school library, she can’t wait to begin! But how can Marisol make a sky without blue paint? After gazing out the bus window and watching from her porch as day turns into night, she closes her eyes and starts to dream. . . . From the award-winning Peter H. Reynolds comes a gentle, playful reminder that if we keep our hearts open and look beyond the expected, creative inspiration will come.