The Boy in the Canvas

“You’ve gotta listen to me a second,” she said, her face suddenly serious. “If you can do what I do, you’re gonna find out not every painting is nice. Be careful about which ones you visit and which ones you jump to…Paintings are magical. They’re a reflection of the artists passions, dreams, and loves, but also their fears and doubts. I think there might be some things out there that thrive on that stuff. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see them. You mind them.”
—
When twelve year old Joseph tragically loses his mother, his world is shattered. Left with his angry, alcoholic father in their rundown apartment, he finds himself longing to be free of the life he’s been stuck with.
Staring into a generic landscape painting in the church basement at his mother’s funeral, he almost gets his wish; a mysterious girl in an Iron Maiden vest steps out of the picture, opening his eyes to impossible and incredible worlds. Joseph longs to follow her into the painting but before he can join her, he is ripped away and sent to St. Theodore’s Academy, a correctional school run by a sadistic headmaster.
Aided by his only friend, Odilon Mercier, Joseph will stop at nothing to escape St. Theodore's. His only hope at freedom is through the magical, strange, and dangerous worlds of the paintings he finds within the school.
But something else lurks within them. Something dangerous. Something hungry.