Melinda is struggling in art class; she desperately needs inspiration. In fact, so does the class as a whole, which prompts Mr. Freeman to say that everyone's imagination is paralyzed and that they need “to take a trip.”

What they need, says Mr. Freeman, is to visit the mind of a “Great One,” namely the famous Spanish artist Picasso. At first, though, Melinda's none too impressed by what she sees as she reads a book full of reprints of Picasso's work. She doesn't like all the naked women, nor does she care much for the profusion of blue in these paintings. It's as if Picasso ran out of red and green paint for a few weeks.

But then, when she gets to the chapter on cubism, something remarkable happens. Melinda's breath is taken away by what she sees so much so that a little part of her brain jumps up and down yelling, “I get it! I get it!”

Cubism was a school of art that sought to go beyond surface reality by depicting people and objects in geometrical shapes. Picasso was one of the foremost pioneers of the movement, and Melinda is enamored by the way he rearranges people and objects so that you really have to look at them closely in order to see them.

Suitably inspired by the works of the master, Melinda sketches a cubist tree with “hundreds of skinny rectangles for branches.” Mr. Freeman is impressed by Melinda's work and gives her a thumbs-up. “Now you're getting somewhere,” he says.