You Can Move Mountains - Perfect Picture Book Friday #PPBF

5 minutes ago

4 min read

There's something meditative and magical about watching Bob Ross create a stunning landscape painting during his PBS show The Joy of Painting. Though I've watched many hours of his show, I never knew anything about the man himself. I am so excited to highlight this uniquely formatted and stunning biography of Bob Ross.

Book cover - An outline of Bob Ross holding a paintbrush and a palette is superimposed on a painting with mountains, a river, and trees.

You Can Move Mountains: The Artful Life of Painter Bob Ross

Author: Richard Ho

Illustrator: Daniel Miyares

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (August 11, 2026)

Ages: 4-8

Nonfiction

Themes:

Biography, painting, happy accidents, creativity, and joy.

Synopsis:

A gorgeous picture book about the influential American painter Bob Ross and his timeless words of wisdom, by award-winning creators Richard Ho and Daniel Miyares.

A blank canvas is your world. A limitless sky. A new horizon. You are the creator, adding blotches of blue and circular strokes of white.

You might not like it at first. You might call it a mistake. But there are no mistakes...only happy accidents. For you are experiencing the joys of painting.

You Can Move Mountains is a touching picture book biography about the American artist and icon Bob Ross, the joys of painting and creativity, and the life lessons we can learn from a blank canvas.

Opening Lines:

You start with a blank canvas.

Any size or shape will do.

Because the canvas is your world . . .

and you're the creator.

What I LOVE about this book: This is one of those exciting books that breaks the mold. Which is absolutely perfect for an ode to the inspirational painter who himself broke the mold and continues to touch so many lives. The opening spread sets up two "blank" canvases - a solid black on the left and the blank canvas on an easel on the right. Then, in conjunction with the statement, "you are the creator," Daniel Miyares ingeniously shows the shadow of Bob Ross coming out of the darkness superimposed on the blank canvas.

Internal spread - on the left the page is solid black. On the right, a beam of light illuminates a canvas on an easel, with a shadowy outline of Bob Ross on the easel and the dark wall below it.

Text © Richard Ho, 2026. Image © Daniel Miyares, 2026.

One of the most unusual things about this biography is that while it is about Bob Ross, it is written in a second person address to the reader. Richard Ho wonderfully emulates the gentle, lyrical, soothing voice of Bob Ross through the text; making it feel like you are listening to his PBS television show about painting. Unlike most biographies, the events of his early life are all told by Daniel Miyares through the images on the left, while we watch the hand of the adult Bob Ross paint a picture on the right. Just as he had done in his show.

Internal image - on the left, a toddler in a highchair painting his tray with strawberry and blue berry juices. On the right, an arm and hand, holding a palette full of paint, are held out perpendicular to a blank canvas on an easel.

For instance, when the text says, "You fill a palette with globs of paint./ This is all the paint you will need," we are get the image of Bob as a young toddler, painting his highchair tray with strawberries and blueberries juxtaposed to the hand and arm of the adult Bob Ross holding a painter's palette full of paints before a blank canvas. Next the text says, "You pick a brush...the bigger the brush...the bigger the mark you'll make," on the left, we see a young Bob building with blocks, then building a wooden birdhouse with his father, and on the right, a row of many brushes below an arm and hand holding a rounded brush in front of the canvas.

It's so fun how the illustrations lead us through Bob's life, as the painting on the right develops. Important moments in Bob's life, such as joining the armed forces and going through basic training are combined with a brush painting blue strokes across the canvas. While swirls of happy, playful clouds pair with more serious aspects of Bob's experiences in the military.

I love how Richard Ho and Daniel Miyares combined efforts to bring the honest, and encouraging voice of Bob Ross ("There are no mistakes...only happy accidents. And remember: You can move mountains.") to highlight the moment in Bob's life where, seemingly stuck as a bartender in an Alaska tavern, he makes a choice to reinvent himself and launch his career as a painter.

Internal spread - on the left, a man with a towel over his shoulder looks up at the tavern's TV showing a painter creating a landscape. On the right, a metal blade tool scrapes paint off a canvas, to change the way the mountain was painted.

The remarkable ink and gouache illustrations continue to follow Bob Ross's journey as a painter through to the creation of his PBS TV show, as a landscape scene is created in the images on the right, accompanied by some of Bob Ross's favorite sayings and loaded with gentle encouragement. It is a magnificent and unique biography. A perfect ode to a man whose gentleness empowered and inspired so many around the world to explore the joy of painting.

Resources:

using materials available to you - paper, watercolor, colored pencils, or crayons - make your own landscape collage (torn paper), painting, or drawing. And remember "there are no mistakes...only happy accidents."
watch some of Bob Ross's videos on his You Tube Channel. Try out one of the paintings yourself.

If you missed my interview with Richard Ho and Daniel Miyares on Monday, find it (here).

This post is part of a series of blog posts by authors and KidLit bloggers called Perfect Picture Book Fridays. For more picture book suggestions and resources see Susanna Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Books.