The Picasso Curse

Gutman, Dan. The Picasso Curse

September 2, 2025 by Holiday House

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Edwin Hodge finds a cool poster of Kobe Bryant at a flea market near Peoria, Illinois and pays $10 for it to the seller, Mr. Ledger. A classmate, Vinnie Capanella, also wanted the poster, which makes Edwin happy, since Vinnie is a bully. When Edwin gets the poster home, he finds a drawing under the frame. He takes it to school for show and tell, which of course makes Vinnie even angrier, but also draws the attention of his art teacher, Ms. Castello, who later calls his home to tell his parents they really should get it appraised. Since there is a flashback in the book telling us a story about a doodle by Pablo Picasso, supposedly done while he was being questioned as a suspect in the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa, we know that Edwin does indeed have a valuable piece of art. This recommendation starts a whirlwind of activity, as Edwin and his family have to deal with the "curse" of a string of ups and downs. Mr. Ledger appears, first offering a few hundred dollars for the return of the sketch, and then $10,000. The family travels to an art museum in Chicago, where a graduate student sees the sketch and introduces Edwin to her professor. They think about listing it with an art auction house in New York City, but as they are making plans to travel there, the house rescinds the offer to represent the piece. Insurance on the art is high, and travel is expensive especially since the Hodges are dealing with the loss of the mother's job after the Dollar General where she works is damaged in a tornado that almost takes the sketch away. Edwin eventually makes the news and does a lot of talk shows on Zoom, but this brings a lot of unwanted attention. He decides to cut down on the folderol by staging a shredding of the piece, but even that gathers an unwarranted amount of interest, with bids for pieces of the artwork commanding large prices, and a company offering $100,000 to sponsor the streaming event. It's all a fast-paced, nutty ride... and ends up on a cliff hanger. What would YOU do in Edwin's shoes, if Picasso's curse targeted YOU?

Strengths: Like Gutman's The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle, The Picasso Curse blends fact and fiction nicely. Gutman even goes the extra mile to point out what parts of the story are true, and which are not! There are even photographs and reproductions of posters and other historical artifacts to add a sense of realism to the story. The best part about this is the wish fulfillment angle; Edwin not only gets a rare bargain, but he takes it from right under the nose of the school bully. While a lot of the occurrences seem unlikely, they also seem entirely possible, and I loved how the parents were willing to go along with Edwin's plans, not matter how wild they got. Not having a firm ending to the story makes this an intriguing title to use as a read aloud, and to have students write what they think will happen next. I don't think that Gutman had any formal training as an educator, but he definitely has an innate ability to trick readers into learning a lot in most of his books. 
Weaknesses: The back story about the Mona Lisa theft and Picasso's artwork is introduced rather early in the book, and is rather long. I thought it moved along quickly, but I can see how readers who aren't interested in history might find this bit of the book slow. 
What I really think: Gutman's books are always such fun, and he is such an asset to the world of children's literature. He clearly spends a lot of time listening to what young readers want. The blurb for this book quotes Gutman as saying “I want my readers to think that reading my books is like watching a movie. One where you never know what’s going to happen next.” He certainly accomplished that with this fun and funny story of an unlikely flea market find. This is a must purchase for middle school and elementary libraries.