This exceptional series of interactive art appreciation books will develop an early awareness of and interest in fine art. Each full-color thematic book introduces children to twelve works of art, eliciting their observations about and attention to the painting. Open-ended questions about each work and a brief biography of the artist provide gentle lessons in perspective, color, line, and composition. A quality reproduction of each work appears on the left, with observations and questions on the right of each two-page spread. No advance preparation or knowledge of art is required - just open and enjoy with your child. Each volume represents a wide variety of styles, artists, techniques and time periods. While the books can be used in any order, Enjoying Art with Children would probably be the place to start. The paintings in this volume have children as their subjects, which helps children to become immediately involved in the artwork. Subsequent titles explore landscape, animals, recreation, photography, Native American art, early American art, works from famous artists, and more. Hardcover.

Customer Reviews

 
Nicole S. from Columbia.SC wrote the following on 03/11/2008:
Beautiful book. Not super expensive. Nice size pictures and simple, thought provoking questions right there next to the picture. A great start to Art Appreciation; and no teacher prep required - which I love. Our entire family (ages 5 to 32) really enjoys paging through this book.

 
Sue S. from Elkton, MI wrote the following on 05/09/2008:
I used to be afraid of art until I bought this book and shared it with my 5-year-old daughter. I thought fine art was for the sophisticated — certainly not for a regular person like me. "Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children" introduces kids to great works of art in a very gentle way. The whole point of beginning to enjoy art is simply to start looking at it. Each two-page spread covers one piece of art. On the left page is the print, nearly filling the page, with information about the artist, name of the piece, date, and where it is located (such as a gallery or private collection). The right-hand page has a few questions the parent can ask the child and discuss together, such as, "What do you think the child is looking at? What makes you think so?" and, "The artist used a lot of different lines in this painting. Find a straight line. ..." There are no wrong answers. The questions are designed to get the children looking — really looking — at the art. Then at the bottom is a brief narrative about the artwork and the artist, explaining what is happening in the picture or how and why the artist created it. Each spread is an art appreciation lesson, without it ever feeling like a lesson. It's even easy for someone like me with no prior art background. I like that this book starts author Gladys Blizzard’s series of books with pictures of children, as it’s easy for children to get into paintings of kids their own ages. Now that I’m not afraid to look at art and take it all in, it’s fun to explore it further. My daughter and I are able to talk about artwork we see. We talk about how it was created, what the artist might have been feeling, and we compare it to other art we have seen. I wish I had been exposed to art like this when I was 5 years old! We started with this book and I have already purchased couple more in the series. Some things we have done at home to extend the learning from this book: I bought an inexpensive table-top easel and set the book up in our living room, opened to the artwork we studied that week. Every time we walk by we can appreciate it even more and even notice new things. We add the artist’s birth-death dates in a timeline we keep for history and geography. Once my daughter wanted to try to recreate one of the paintings, so we sketched it ourselves. One of my favorite moments as a homeschooling mother was when our family had the chance to go to the Art Institute of Chicago and see one of the paintings. We were able to enjoy it and talk about it intelligently. My daughter was not bored at the art gallery as I would have been at her age. She was fascinated, all thanks to "Come Look with Me!"