It's so much fun to sing from a book! Launch young children in song with Sheila Hamanaka's The Hokey Pokey (Simon and Schuster, $16.00; grades K-2) where large pictures spread across pages to invite movement, teach right and left, and parts of the body!
Or David Carter's If You're Happy And You Know It (Scholastic, $14.95; grades K-1) is a pop-up featuring animal characters who model movements.
Bob Barner's Dem Bones (Chronicle Books, $13.95; grades K-3) frolics across curriculum as it captures the words to the song, tells bone facts, and as the skeletons cavort across the pages they play different musical instruments! Sometimes there's music all around you.
Angela Medearis' Rum-A-Tum-Tum (Holiday House, $16.95; grades K-2) is a jazzy exploration of turn of the century New Orleans as seen as a small girl. This historical tribute to the city that made music great leaves lots of room for discussion of everything from the French Quarter to Creole. Libba Gray's Little Lil and the Swinging-Singing Sax (Simon & Schuster, $16.00; grades 2-4) shows how music can be central to family happiness. When Lil's uncle Sudi hocks his sax to buy medicine, life's unhappy until Lil recovers it and brings music and joy back. The lyrical text is filled with its own kind of music.
Arthur Geisert's The Etcher's Studio (Houghton Mifflin, $15.95; grades 2-5) begins with a readable simple story of a boy who helps his grandfather prepare for a showing of his etchings. In the back is more technical information about an etcher's studio and how an etching is made. A great book to introduce this process!
Elizabeth Laredo's Boogie Bones (Putnam, $15.95; grades 1-3) stars a dance-loving skeleton whose sympathetic friends dress him in human garb so he can attend a dance contest. When the costume breaks down, Boogie faces human prejudice until a small girl partner leads him to dance victory!
In Laurence Yep's Ribbons (Putnam, $5.95; grades 4-6) Robin Lee loves ballet , but when her grandmother comes from Hong Kong to live with the family expenses put an end to lessons. Robin's resentment grows until a moment of disclosure opens way to relationship and mutual support.
Children's favorite bully is back in I-Can-Read form in Barbara Bottner's Bootsie Barker Ballerina (HarperCollins, $14.95; grades K-2). Bootsie's victim of choice, Lisa takes her friend Bernie for comfort and Bootsie pushes during plies, trips during releves, and torments the two throughout ballet class. Jacqueline Ogburn's The Reptile Ball (Dial, $14.99; grades 2-5) is a wonderful arts mix. Through poetry, Ogburn shows us dances from samba to quadrille, poetic forms from haiku to limerick, and even employs the true nature of reptiles to reveal the humor and grace of ballroom dance. Younger children will enjoy the rhythms and humor, but there's lots of investigation possibilities for upper elementary to discover dance and poetic forms!
Mila Boutan creates four wonderful new art packs will lead children to discover Monet, Cezanne, Matisse, and Van Gogh. Each contains book that describes the artists' techniques and lives. questions and an activity book. (Chronicle Books, $9.95 each; grades K-3)
Anita Ganeri's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra puts together illustrations and a CD to introduce the orchestra and classical music. (HBJ, $25.00; grades 3 and up)
Scholastic's "First Discovery Art Books" offers Landscapes and Paintings (Scholastic, $11.95; grades K-2) use reproductions of artists like Van Gogh, Monet and Seurat to explain technique to young children. For older children, there's What the Painter Sees (Scholastic, $19.95; grades 3-6) which makes landscapes, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, light and dark and more understandable.
Taylor Morrison's Antonio's Apprenticeship: Painting a Fresco in Renaissance Italy (Holiday House, $15.95; grades 2-5) tells the story of a young man who is apprenticed to a fresco painter and shows the process from developing an understanding of materials to making walls come alive with art.
Each title in Barrie Carson Turner's _The Living Music Series _explains composers, techniques, form and history, and includes a CD to accompany the text. The series includes: The Living Clarinet; The Living Flute; The Living Piano and The Living Violin (all titles $25.00 from Knopf; for grades 3 and up)
Clive Wilson edits The Kingfisher Young People's Book of Music (Kingfisher, $19.95; grades 3-8) This resource is filled with pictures and information to lead children on musical adventures through time, around the world, and to discoveries of all kinds of instruments.
In Jonathan London's tale, The Village Basket Weaver (Dutton, $14.99; grades 2-5). Carpio, an elderly Carib, hands on responsibility for preserving the art form that is necessary for the sustenance of the whole village.
New in paperback is Elisa Kleven's The Lion and the Little Red Bird (Puffin, $4.99; grades K-3). A small bird with a lovely voice is fascinated by a lion whose tail color changes daily and it's art that makes a shared language so the two can communicate.
Joanne Ryder's EarthDance (Henry Holt, $16.95; grades K-3) is a poetic imagining of the dance of the earth which begs to have movement accompany it!
Dr. Suess' rhythmic My Many Colored Days (Knopf, $16.00; ages 5-7) links emotions, and colors with dynamic illustrations.
Learning from the Lives of Others: Recent Biographies of People in the Arts
Michelle Dionetti, Painting the Wind: A Story of Vincent van Gogh (Little Brown and Company, $15.95; grades 1-5)
John Duggleby, Artist in Overalls: The Life of Grant Wood (Chronicle,$15.95; grades 4 and up)
Gloria Kamen, Hidden Music: The Life of Fanny Mendelssohn (Atheneum, $15.00; grades 5-8)
Mary Lyons, Painting Dreams: Minnie Evans, Visionary Artist (Houghton Mifflin, $14.95; grades 3-7)
Catherine Reef, John Steinbeck (Clarion, $17.95; grades 5 and up)
As the new year begins, temperatures drop, days grow bleak and dark comes earlier, lots of new reasons to share books with children begin to surface. Book sharing can lead to adventures in the world. Books are a perfect way to prepare for art museum visits.
Very young children will enjoy art with the frame provided by Museum of Modern Arts' Philip Yenawine's Places and People (both from Delcorte and The Museum of Modern Art, $14.95; ages 5-9) Places, the more simplistic of the two books focuses on observing, while People adds the complexity of inference and nuance that depends on more careful looking. Both use contrasts, similarities, and feature lots of questions to help parents begin imaginative talks about feelings, relationships, and thoughts.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Viking Books take children on a study of the work of the six masters in a new six book series highlighting the works of Bruegel, Degas, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Raphael, and Monet. All books follow the same clever title pattern, What Makes a Monet...a Monet? The forty-eight pages, jam-packed with beautiful color reproductions, delivers on the promise of each title, giving children from 8-12, clues to differentiate artists based on color, line, shape, composition, brushwork and subject. (each from Viking, $9.95)
Peggy Roalf also an educator at the Metropolitan adds to her excellent theme-based art series with Musicians and Dogs. Reproduction is excellent and the connection between artist and a specific work is in-depth and meaningful. (both from Hyperion, $6.95; ages 8-12)
Books are a great way to introduce dance. The spirit of dance is fictionalized in Eileen Spinelli's Boy, Can He Dance (Four Winds Press, $14.95; ages 4-8) Tony comes from a family of chefs, but his talents are given to dance rather than the culinary arts. Eager to please his insistent father, Tony agrees to spend a day learning the kitchen. Kitchen rhythms continually incite him to dance, until a happy accident yeilds a part for Tony in a hotel production where it's affirmed, "boy, can he dance." Spinelli's word rhythms and repetitions are captured by the illustrative correographing of Paul Yalowitz their duet sparkles through every page. Andrea Pinkney and Brian Pinkney collaborate to bring alive the life and spirit of Alvin Ailey (Hyperion, $13.95; ages 5-10) This is a great tribute to a man who changed forever African-American correography, performance, and the the world of modern dance. The Pinkneys's words and etchings honor the man and capture his whirling movements in a way children can understand.
Some of the most beautiful art in America is found between the covers of children's books. What better way to examine art and the mind of the working artist than through books that give meaningful expression on visual, emotional and literary levels? Visual art, music, and dance are all celebrated in books for children; books that capture the essence of the art and the issues of the artists.
One can begin introducing great works of art earlier than you think. One form of initial accessiblity comes from Florence Cassen Mayers ABC series which uses work from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, National Air and Space Museum and Brooklyn Museum's Egyptian art. Even the young object naming infant can appreciate the images Ms. Mayers presents in a clear and simple format. Ages 1-5. (Abrams 1986-8)
Songs and stories are united in Go in And Out the Window which pairs familiar children's songs with artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ages newborn-6. (Holt, 1987 )
This same museum backgrounds other books in the series such as We Wish You a Merry Christmas Ages newborn- adult. (Arcade, 1989)
If you like the idea of art forming illustration for another medium, you will want to later introduce your child to Keneth Koch's Talking to the Sun. This is an anthology of poems for young people in which poems and art move through time from antiquities to modern art. Ages 7-adult (Holt, 1985)
One of the first arts young children discover is dance. Little girls in particular fall in love with this form at any early age. Angelina Ballerina certainly does! She is a small mouse who has always wanted to dance. Dance dreams fill every waking moment creating havoc in her world. Fortunately, Angelina's wise father knows her dreams need airing, buys her ballet trappings, and enrolls her in ballet school. Fortunately for young ballerinas, Helen Craig has written a whole series of books about Angelina, all beautifully detailed by Katherarine Holabird. Ages 3-6. (Crown)
It's difficult to be a younger sibling with a dancing sister. Dance Tanya by Patricia Lee Gauch tells the story of small Tanya who wishes to dance like her sister Elise. Patient Elise fosters her sisters love and Tanya does a "wonderful sad swan" when she dances to Swan Lake. Finally Tanya grows up enough for her own leotard and dance lessons. Watercolored illustrations by Satomi Ichikawa help us see the balance of imagination and careful precision of young children learning dance. Ages 3-6. (Philomel, 1989)
Probably one of the first ways a child experiences visual arts is through colors and color mixing. Author-illustrator Ann Jonas who well knows the world view of the young combines dance and visual arts in her Color Dance. Three young girls with primary-colored scarves show varying hues while exhibiting the joys of dance. Later a young boy shows how black, white and grey effect color while letting a young audience see that boys enjoy dance too! (Greenwillow, 1989)
In Benjamin's Portrait by Alan Baker, we see a small hamster who has some problems with color mixing. Benjamin admires portraiture in a gallery and decides to paint a self-portrait. He quickly learns that painting is more difficult than he supposed as he becomes the painted rather than the painter. He perseveres, washes the rainbowed paint from himself and ends by thinking photography might be easier. The surprise ending can lead a young listener to a whole new set of imagining. Ages 3-6. (Lothrop, 1986)
Understanding the importance of self and art emerges early as Alice the Artist creates a picture she likes, only to have her friends suggest things she must add. Near the book's end of the now crowded landscape is eaten by a tiger, whereupon Alice decides, "I'm doing it my own way, this time!" Author Martin Waddell gives young artists a message that it's never too early to learn. Ages 3-6. (Dutton, 1988)
A similar theme appears in Frank Asch's Bread and Honey. This time the main character is a little bear who lovingly paints a picture of his mother in school. On the way home, his artwork becomes transformed as each animal he meets offers a suggestion to make the picture match their own animal mothers. The small bear brings home a rather monstrous looking picture, but unlike the other critics, she loves it the way it is. The clear implication is it is her son rather than the artwork that she loves the way as is. Ages 3-6. (Parent's, 1982; Crown, 1988 )
An event that causes concern early in a child artist's career can be performing. Harriet's Recital by Nancy Carlson is a calming book for a nervous performer. Harriet, the dog, loves dance but the thought of her upcoming program fills her with fears and dreads. Her encouraging teacher tells her to breathe as she goes on stage and suddenly Harriet's audience awarness ends, her love of dance takes over, Harriet gets over her nervousness and has a successful experience. Ages 3-6. (Carolrhoda, 1992; Penguin, 1985)
Before taking your child to an art museum you might want to give them a sense of art and museums. Marc and Laurene Brown's Visiting the Art Museum shows a family with three children visiting a large museum. The book is a mix of Brown's illustrations and pieces replicated from museums all over the world. The book is written in the conversations of the the children and other patrons as they experience the museum, giving a real sense of being in the different galleries. For an older child and adults there is an index that discusses different galleries and tips for enjoying a museum. The humor of illustrations and comments work for all levels. Ages 4-8. (Dutton, 1986)
One really good way to understand art is through viewing the lives of artists. Perhaps the youngest autobiography I've ever read is Tomie dePaola's The Art Lesson. One of children's best loved writers and illustrators, de Paola describes the difficulties he had a young child, already having a passion for producing art and coming up against teachers who stifled self-expression. Fortunately for him (and the children who love his work) there was a teacher who appreciated, accepted and nurtured his individuality and gifts. Ages 4-8. (Putnam, 1989)
Bjork's Linnea in Monet's Garden is a book that dimensionalizes and brings Claude Monet to life through a child's vision. Linnea rather walks around in his life as she discovers the Paris he saw, Impressionism, his garden at Giverny and even talks with a relative who still lives. High quality reproductions, illustrations and photographs abound and help Linnea and other children vision this great artist. Ages 7-12. ( Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1985)
Children that want to explore different artists can do so in the series by Ernest Raboff. He discusses the life and work of artists such as Chagalll, Rembrandt, Durer, Matisses and others. Again, the reproductions of the work are good and Raboff vividly unites the artist's life and work as compliments of each other. Ages 7-12. (HarperCollins)
Children ages ten and up can view a history of Great Painters by Piero Ventura. Works of art are discussed contextually in view of history and society, artistic styles, as well as the lives of artists. (Putnam, 1984)
Older children interested in architectural artistry will enjoy Round Buildings, Square Buildings, & Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish by Philip M. Isaacson. The magnificent photographs reveal not only well-known architectural monuments of the world, but give a sense of how buildings go together, react to light and feel inside. Ages 7-adult. (Knopf, 1988)
Music is brought into visual and literary dimensions in children's books. The story of Swan Lake is told by Margot Fonteyn and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Ages 4-8. (HBJ, 1989) The same story has been expanded into a novel by Mark Helprin with periodic illustrations by Chris Van Allsburg. Ages 10-adult. (Houghton Mifflin, 1989) The opera Aida is told by Leontyne Price and illustrated by Caldecott-winning artists Leo and Diane Dillon. (HBJ, 1990) The Nutcracker told and illustrated by artists such as Lizbeth Zweger (Picture Book Studio, 1987)
Music seems a little more accessible after a child hears Karla Kuskin's The Philharmonic Gets Dressed. The book allows a peek at how the one hundred and four musicians get ready for work. Everything from bathing to dressing to transportation. Once a child views illustrations of the performers in their underwear, somehow they become more real. (HarperCollins, A Charlotte Zolotow book, 1982)
Jill Krementz's photo-essay A Very Young Dancer gives a view of The Nutcracker from the inside. It is told from the point of view of a ten year old girl who auditions, rehearses and performs the ballet. (Knopf, 1976)
Children and adults are fascinated with the works of David Macauley. In Cathedral, City, Pyramid, Castle, Unbuilding and Underground, Mr. Macaulay details and describes structures with imagination and creativity. In The Way Things Work he blends science and art in showing his readers a visual guide to the world of machines. Being easily mind-boggled by machines, I was surprised to find the illustrations and simply explained principals made sense and even seemed fun to me. (Houghton Mifflin)
For many artists, their art comes from deep within. Gregory, the painter in Cynthia Rylant's All I See, joyfully paints whales jumping from the waters of a calm lake. When he discovers he has been observed by a small shy boy named Charlie, Gregory suspends his own creating to teach shadow, light, line and proportion. He even buys Charlie the tools of the trade. At the end of the story Charlie is left with a knowing that there are many things that wait somewhere beyond his physical vision to be seen and painted. The art of Peter Catalanotto well-describes both Gregory's teachings and the deeper things that defy verbalization. Ages 4-8. (Orchard, 1988)
In Ben's Trumpet, by Rachel Isadora, we view a young boy who thrives on the sounds of the Zig Zag Jazz Club. He begins to hear the melodies of his internal music so strongly that he plays an imaginary trumpet all day long, despite the taunts of friends or apparent disinterest of his family. Fortunately for him, the trumpeter from the Zig Zag Jazz Club sees in him a kindred soul and is willing to bring Ben's private music alive in the world. Isadora's black and white illstrations are jazz-true from portraits of musicians to wild background that have visual rythms of their own. (Greenwillow, 1979)
Bidemmi is a young artist-writer who lives above an adult artist in Vera William's Cherries and Cherry Pits. Bidemmi has an amazing sense of herself as artist. She loves to draw and from her fanciful drawings come stories--stories of what she has seen, stories of her own life, stories of her imaginings. All of them are rich and detailed and compliment each other, just as art and life should . Ages 5-8. (Greenwillow, 1986; Scholastic)
Sometimes an artist may not be in touch with his inner vision. In The Magic Fan, Keith Baker tells the tale of an oriental boy-builder who is guided by a magic fan to make amazing works of art, until at last, he comes to know his gifts and is guided by his inner magic. Besides the important story theme and its clever execution, I am very impressed with the fact Mr. Baker turns a flap book technique into an art form. (HBJ, 1989)
There are many differing views of art when it comes into the world in children's book fiction. In Liang and the Magic Paintbrush by Demi we see a vision of how art must sometimes be protected from the very wordly. Liang is a poor boy who desires only to draw. Ridiculed by an art school because of his poverty, Liang is visited in a dream by old man who gives him a magic paintbrush, cautioning him to use it carefully. Liang soon discovers that this brush can bring the objects he paints to life. He paints gifts for poor friends until his magic is discovered by a greedy emperor who abuses Liang's talents until the clever artists defeats the emperor through his own greed. Ages 4-7. (Holt, 1980)
Claude Clement's Musician from the Darkness tells a tale from the times "even before mankind began to speak". A man with blue-eyes goes with the hunters. He is moved by the sounds of nature to cut reed and play to the marsh birds who surround him. The birds called to his music are killed by the hunters and the horrified musician refuses to play again. He is cast out from the tribe, but a small boy returns to him and they travel off together. Illustrations by John Howe give emotional representation to the disharmony of the musician's view and that of the tribe. Ages 5-8. (Little Brown, 1989)
Fabilist Leo Lionni gives us an excellent view of the importance of artists in the world in Frederick. A family of mice busily collects food for winter, but not Frederick. Frederick instead gathers sun rays, colors and words. Indeed long after the food has been eaten, Frederick's words bring memories of golden sunlight, colorful summers and the beauty of eleoquent poetry to warm the gray winter world. Ages 4-8. (Knopf, 1967)
Once a piece is produced, it becomes something outside the artist and can take different shapes for different people. Paul Fleischman's Rondo in C begins with a small girl playing Beethoven's Rondo. Her attentive listening audience becomes reflective and each person lost in an emotional memory of what the piece represents to them. Artist Janet Wentworth has done an excellent job of capturing the moods both in memory and on the faces of the audience. Ages 4-6. (HarperCollins, 1988, a Charlotte Zolotow book)
Claude Clement's The Painter and the Wild Swans tells the story of Oriental artist Teiji who decides that he can not paint again until he has captured the beautiful wild swans on his canvases. Teiji's long journey takes from him material posessions, physical comfort, and finally his illusions that he can ever really capture the beauty of nature. This is a tale of transformation in both word and image. Writer Claude Clement tells of how Teiji at last understands the power of nature's beauty and near-death, is himself transformed into a wild swan. Illustrator Frederic Clement's paintings are divided into frames where one object turns into another, foreshadowing the story line and shows the pictures evolving just as Teiji does. Ages 4-adult. (Dial, 1986)
In Thomas Locker's The Young Artist, a young, gifted portrait-painter from the era of the Dutch Masters is taken to court to produce a large commissioned piece. Alas, he finds that each subject demands to be represented in a certain way. Compromising his own artistic vision, the artist's work is severely effected. Luckily, his private canvases are discovered, the greatness of his pure work seen and he is allowed to produce meaningfully. He, himself, learns the importance of being true to his own vision. Ages 5-8. (Dial, 1989 )
An artist's view, however, can sometimes get in the way of the art itself. Rhinehart Friesen's Almost An Elephant tells the story of an artist who decides that a lump of clay is to be an elephant. Unfortunately, for the artist, that is not what the piece of clay has in mind. It is only when the artist gets out of the way and allows the material to reveal itself that a beautiful, perfect deer emerges. Ages 3-7. (Hyperion Press, 1987)
In music, one must also be in partnership with one's instrument. In Claude Clement's The Voice of the Wood, a Venetian craftsman makes a cello out of a tree he loves. The craftsman takes his masterpiece to a masked society ball. When a young, famous musician reaches for it, the craftsman warns that only a heart in tune with the voice of the wood can play it. The prideful musician produces only grating noises until finally alone at home he strips himself of his costume, pretensions, and bravado. His music is then so lovely that leafy branches sprout from the cello's neck. Ages 5-8. (Dial, 1988)
In Zekmet the Stone Carver, Mary Stolz contemplates the origins of the Great Sphinx. When the Pharaoh wants a monument to live beyond his time, it is not the proud and haughty vizier who conceives of the splendid monument, it is Zekmet, a humble stone carver, whose lowly station allows him still to be in communion with the world around him. It is while viewing the world that Zekmet sees a lion and realizes the power of symbol that has been given to him. Egyptologist Deborah Norse Lattimore's illustrations are true to the period in her borders which tell the story in hieroglyps, in the colors which represent the setting and in the stylized format of portrature. Ages 6-10. (HBJ, 1988)
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg is a tribute to the creative imagination which powers all artists. The introduction tells the story of a vanished writer-artist who left only illustrations and the audience is left to imagine the tales. Mr. Van Allsburg's illustrations are worth the proverbial thousand words and since the publication of the book, people of all ages have imagined and created the missing fictions. Ages 5- adult. (Houghton Mifflin, 1984)
Individuality of expression is the subject of Sylvia Fair's The Bedspread. When two ninety year old sisters are bedridden and bored, they decide to amuse themselves by designing a quilt based on rememberances of the home they grew up in. One sister's end of the quilt is bright-colored and emotion filled; the other's is precise and beautifully crafted. Both admire and appreciate the other's work and world view at the end of the project. Ages 4-8. (Morrow, 1982)
The message of Hamilton's Art Show by Lisa Ernst seems to be, don't follow a how-to-book for becoming a famous artist. Hamilton does, and his focus seems to be more on becoming famous than on becoming an artist. Meanwhile his Aunt Nell quietly pursues the tending of her garden. Imagine Hamilton's surprise when his aunt becomes the object of fame! Ages 4-6. (Lothrop, 1986)
Art can be magic. It is in Molly Bang's The Paper Crane. An old, gentle stranger comes to a failing restaurant. Though he proclaims he is poor, the owner feeds him generously. In reward, the stranger folds a paper crane from a napkin which can come to life and dance at the clap of a hand. People come from miles around to see the crane and the restaurant becomes so prosperous that even when the stranger returns, mounts the crane and flies away, people still come to hear the story. Molly Bang's many-colored collages are as magic as the tale she tells! Ages 4-8. (Greenwillow, 1985)
Mr. Nick and Mrs. Jolley ride the trolley daily, both of them love to knit. Their products and styles are different, but they build a relationship based on their happy knitting companionship. When Mrs. Jolley is lonely and cheerless in the hospital, her friend brings the world to her in a knitted quilt created from their mutual sharing. I enjoy seeing this male character knitting and nurturing in Margaret Wild's Mr. Nick's Knitting. Ages 4-8. (HBJ, 1988)
Marcella, the duck, loves to paint more than anything. Night after night she paints the moon in Laura Jane Coats' Marcella and the Moon. At first her duck friends tease her, but when one night the moon does not appear, the frightened ducks run to Marcella. Her artistic observations have given her a knowledge of the world that reaches beyond common pond experience and the duck's begin to appreciate their friend in a new way. Ages 3-6. (Macmillan, 1986)
Emma by Wendy Kesselman is a lonely seventy-two year old woman who is much loved by her large family. When they give her a birthday present of a painting of her hometown, Emma desires to paint the town as she remembers it. The more she paints, the more she is surrounded by friends and places she loved, and her loneliness fades in the vivid colors she has created around her. Award-winning illustrator Barbara Cooney, herself an woman who came to an illustrative career late in life gives perfect expression to the meaning of the book. (Doubleday, 1980)
In Vera B. Williams' Something Special for Me, it's Rosa's birthday and her mother decideds to spend her jar full of hard-earned tips on something of Rosa's choosing. In a time when so many children are flooded with abundance, I appreciate seeing a child in the literature who is economically bound to make choices and find something that will be truly precious to her. And what is precious to Rosa is an accordian whose music can cheer her household. Music and its comfort comes to Rosa again in Williams' later book, Music, Music for Everyone. Ages 4-8. (Greenwillow, 1983 & 1984)
Rachel Isadora's Max is a skillful baseball player who walks his sister to ballet class. Isadora's illustrations show the exhuberant zeal of this young boy who can not stand to just sit in this class, but must join in. In fact, he has so much fun, he is late to his game because he doesn't want to miss the leaps. After the tension of two strikes, he hits a home run and decides that dance class is a great way to warm up before the games. Isadora presents us not only with a picture of a hero who embraces his art with joy, but a male protagonist who goes beyond the traditional boundaries which previously governed his life. Ages 3-7. (Macmillan, 1976)
Sometimes a piece of art becomes a family treasure. This is certainly the case in Patricia Pollaco's The Keeping Quilt. Anna comes to America from Russia with few belongings other than her dress and babushka. When the dress is outgrown, her Mama and all the neighbors makes a quilt from the dress, babushka and other scraps. The quilt becomes a treasure handed from generation to generation used for tablecloth, huppa, baby quilt to welcome and celebrate the continuation of family. Ages 5-8. (Simon and Schuster, 1988)
Molly Bang adapts the traditional story of the Japanese Crane Wife in her re-telling of Dawn. The story begins with a shipbuilder father telling his young beautiful daughter about the Canadian Goose he captured and healed and the strange woman who came to him soon after asking to be a sail-maker. The father marries the young woman who creates special sails in complete privacy. When the man invades this privacy he finds a Canadian Goose at the loom who shudders and flies away with obvious pain at the separation. The tale is told with sadness and remorse and yet Dawn offers to go and bring her back in the boat the father made for the three of them, returning in the spring when the geese come north again. Bang's excellence as tale-teller and illustrator shine through the beautifully detailed boarders and carefully hand-lettered text creating a story that may very well move you to tears. Ages 5-8. (Morrow, 1983)
Some of the most beautiful art in America is found between the covers of children's books. Certainly that is one way that adults introduce children to art, but there has been a recent explosion in the market of children's books about art. Their expression varies from preparing for museum experiences to experiencing art itself.
You can begin introducing great works of art earlier than you think. I Spy: An Alphabet In Art, devised and selected by Lucy Micklethwait, engages children with its format of a favorite game. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with Aa" reads the text of the first page and the opposing side shows Rene Magritte's Son of Man.. Succeeding pages wend their way through the alphabet with works by Hogarth, Picasso, Seurat and others. The multi-levels of this book make it an excellent family read. My six year old loved finding the objects, my ten year old got first shot at identifying artists, and my husband and I vied for showing off our art history knowledge. Ages 4-10; Greenwillow, $19.00)
Eric Carle's Draw Me a Star is another book that works on a variety of levels. The poetically dreamy story tells of an artist whose creations continually inspire until he actuates a universe bursting with dynamic color and life. Subtle themes are inscribed in the simple text. There is the life-long consuming passion of the artistic process, and the glory of an artist who holds onto a star and "together, they travel across the night sky." Ages 4-8 (Putnam, $15.95)
Dav Pilkey is an artist-writer whose fondness of art surfaces continually in his picture books. In When Cats Dream, Pilkey imagines what life is like from a cat's point of view. He begins with black and white realism, placing a cat in the lap of Whistler's Mother. Abruptly, dreams bring vibrant colors and wild illustrations with styles reminiscent of Chagall, Picasso and Rousseau. Upon waking, colors slide back to black and white and the cat slips into the arms of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Adults can show the young child similarity in style while older readers will enjoy finding the visual surprises themselves. Ages 4-8 (Orchard, $14.95)
Children experiencing art often seem adjective-deprived. A picture is "pretty" or "nice", but they need help extending the experience. Gladys S. Blizzard, art educator, provides guidelines for a spectrum of ages to help children understand and voice their encounters with paintings. Her newest title, Animals in Art , joins two previous titles in her Come Look With Me series , Enjoying Art with Children and Exploring Landscape Art. Her fourth book World of Play, featuring multicultural games in art, will join the others in March. All paintings are diverse in artist, time and geographical representation. Each excellent reproduction is accompanied with questions to pique the curiosity of younger children The Lascaux Cave Paintings asks- "Why do you think the artist painted some animals right over others?". Other explanations of the art suit slightly older children. (Ages 4 to adult; Thomasson-Grant, all $13.95)
For slightly older art observers are Peggy Roalf's Looking at Paintings series. Peggy Roalf, an artist who teaches art to families at the Metropolitan, focuses now Horses and Landscapes. Roalf tells paintings like stories, encapsulating the artist's lives, hopes, fears and artistic choices. Ages 8-12 (Hyperion, both $6.95)
Andre Pekarik's Behind the Scenes, a companion to the PBS series for kids, describes art-looking as being a detective. The series concentrates on technical evaluations covering perspective, color, line and composition function in Painting and transformation of materials, form, scale, surface, and context in Sculpture. (Ages 8-12; Hyperion, both $18.95)
Illustrator-writer Molly Bang's Picture This: Perception and Composition is the product of an artist journey she took to "search for structure". Playfully, she encourages children to cut out simple shapes and see what creates feeling in art. Basic graphics and words show how shape changing, distancing, color and relationship can change the emotional tone of art. Ages 8-12 (Little Brown, $12.95)
Part of the way adults can anchor art for children is revealing the real lives of the people who create art. Beginning to read children can begin to learn to art in Childrens Press' Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists written and illustrated by Mike Venezia . Two new books, Pieter Bruegel ($15.00) and Paul Gaugin ($4.95) will be joined this spring by Salvador Dali ($15.00). Ages 4-9 (Children's Press)
Little Brown publishes two excellent picture biographies steeped in the lives and times of the artists-- Robin Richmond's Introducing Michelangelo (Ages 5-10, $14.95) and Robyn Turner's Mary Cassatt (Ages 6-12, $15.95) Rizzoli publishes A Weekend with Degas which joins similar volumes on Rembrandt, Picasso and Renoir. Formats of each imagine that a small child is visiting the great artists. (Ages 7 and up, all $16.95)
One of the most interesting biographical treatments is Dubelaar and Bruijn's Looking for Vincent. An eccentric aunt falls in love with the Vincent Van Gogh and pulls her nephew along in her consuming obsession. Van Gogh's life, times, and even modern museums and values of his paintings are discussed in the most creative expostion I've seen to date. Ages 6-12. (Checkerboard, $9.95) 1-56288-300-3
More mature readers will enjoy the Anne Neimark's novella, Diego Rivera: Artist of the People. Explanations of his artistic vision and development are viewed in terms of the cultural, personal historical environments in which the artist flourished. (Ages 10 and up, HarperCollins, $17.00)
Probably the best way to inspire artistic vision is by doing. Susan Stern's Keep on Looking: An Art Activity Book is "a sketchbook for your mind" which playfully explores perspective, pattern, lines, sculpture and more. Ages 5 and up ( Hyperion, $9.95)
Rizzoli offers family adventures into sculpture with assemblage of Steven Guarnaccia's wacky hexahedron-headed The Blockheads ($12.95) or a multicultural festival with Tom Nussbaum's punch outs of My World is Not Flat ($12.95)
Architecture fanatics can learn and explore with enjoyment with David Eisen's Fun With Architecture. Published by the Metropolitan, this collection of thirty-five rubber stamps and an architectural guide can lead kids through everything from architectural history to fantasy creations. Ages 5 and up. (Viking, $22.50) 0-670-84684-8
Thacher Hurd and John Cassidy's Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered arrived soon after I'd realized I was art-phobic and my daughter was immersing herself in artistic pleasure. We fought over it! It's a calming book for those whose "artistic talent is in remission." The pages shining with humor, brilliant colors, inviting watercolor paper, and buoyant directions ("Take your brush for a test drive!") In the end, my daughter and I compromised. We are now sharing and enjoying our creations together. (Ages 5 to adult; Klutz Press, $18.95)
Finally the summer heat has passed and the relief of rain and cooler temperatures have arrived. Fall is a perfect time for families to discover the many arts opportunities that abound in the Triangle. A great way to introduce these excursions is with a book that open discussions about the art form you'll be experiencing.
Lucy Micklethwait is a writer who was inspired by experiences of looking at paintings with her own children. In her latest book, A Child's Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings (DK Publishing, $16.95; ages 4-7), she proves again that she knows art and how to nurture inquisitive minds. This oversized book is filled with thirteen glorious reproductions spanning time, mediums, subjects, and artists from van der Weyden to David Hockney. Each piece of art fills a double page spread and tells the story of the painting, a bit about the artist, points out symbolism, describes technique, and poses questions to set children and their parents on the paths of wondering.
In A Boy Named Giotto (FSG, $17.00; ages 5-8) Paolo Guarnieri, an Italian contemporary art critic, writes of eight year old Giotto whose father believes he's "always with his head in the clouds!" But Giotto's mind is filled with curiosity about texture, design, and color. The boy reaches out to the artist, Cimabue, who sees Giotto's potential and gives him instruction, materials, and the promise of an apprenticeship. Illustrator Bimba Landmann, a prize winning artist and wife of the writer, shares her husband's passion for contemporary art and the medieval period. She blends both in her pictures which are modern in feeling, but honor the period with their touches of gold, frequent triptychs, and primitive styles.
Barbara Brenner's The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West (Houghton Mifflin, $15.00; ages 5-9)traces West's boyhood and early art adventures. Born in 1738, Benjamin was only seven when his gift first appeared. In a fascinating sequence of experiences, he is shown colors by friendly Lenape Indians, ravages the pet cat for fur to make "hair pencils" to spread the paint, and finally is taken to Philadelphia where his talents are affirmed and he receives real art supplies. This picture book tells little about the adulthood of the man called "the father of American art". The main focus is his childhood and how his inner drive to create and fascination with art leads him on a path of progressive discoveries.
Fantasy and art come together in Neil Waldman's The Starry Night (Boyds Mills Press, $15.95; ages 5-9). Bernard, playing with other boys in Central Park, is suddenly captured by the brightly colored canvas of a mysterious man who calls himself "Vincent". For days Bernard acts as tour guide, taking Vincent to Harlem, the Statue of Liberty, and other New York locales. Waldman captures each in the vibrant palate and vivid style of van Gogh. At the Museum of Modern Art , Bernard "can hardly breathe" starring at the beauty of "The Starry Night". Noting its familiarity to his friend's work, he looks for confirmation, but Vincent has vanished leaving Bernard a parting gift, the desire to draw. Waldman's illustrations include art by children who were similarly touched by van Gogh's work.
Maureen Sappey 's novel Letters from Vinnie (Front Street Books, $16.95; ages 11 to adult) traces the maturation of artist Vinnie Ream, through letters written to a friend. When Vinne moves from Arkansas to Washington, DC, her heart and her country are at war. Being an ardent Lincoln supporter, she's increasingly uncomfortable with her brother's preference for the Confederacy. All Vinnie's actions are influenced by her love of art and the desire to help her troubled country, whether she is singing to maimed soldiers, or creating a work of art to heal the spirits of the American people. The beautifully written letters provide an intimate accounting of long ago Washington, the horrors of the Civil War, the political difficulties and intrigues of the times, cultures and customs, and of course the extraordinary life of a talented artist.
Sheila Hamanaka and Ayano Ohmi's In Search of the Spirit: The Living National Treasures of Japan (Morrow, $16.00; ages 8 and up) is an amazing non-fiction tribute to artists and art forms of Japan. With a profusion of photographs, the book captures the beauty of the creation, the magic of process, and the dedication of the artists. Each section shows the art form , describes the artist's journeys and discoveries, and then describes the process step by step. Included in this collection are a kimono artist, bamboo weaver, bunraku puppet master, sword maker, noh actor, and potter. The artists and their work are individual, but all celebrate the passion and commitment that drive the excellence of their work.
Kate Petty and Jennie Maizels, bring us their third collaboration, The Amazing Pop-up Music Book (Dutton, $22.99; ages 6-10) Tour guides, J.S. Bark and W.A. Meowzart direct us from the excitement of rhythms to the introduction of note values when we meet the note family in the scale of C with a playable piano. The pages are filled with fun, pull tabs, and information in an ingenious, intriguing format.
Award-winning musician Steve Schuch relates a tale inspired by truth in A Symphony of Whales (HBJ, $16.00; ages 6 and up). Glashka, an Alaskan child has always heard music in her head. The old ones in her village tell her this great gift is the voice of Narna, the whale, an old friend who has not been heard in a long time. On a trip to a nearby village, Glashka's keen hearing helps her family discover waters that "seemed to be heaving and boiling, choked with white whales." The village radios for an icebreaker, the people feed the belugas, but hope fades as the whales refuse to move. Finally, Glashka dreams they require other music, and when classical music is played the belugas follow and sing back to the music, creating a symphony of whales.
The little girl in Jane Cutler's The Cello of Mr. O (Dutton, $15.99; ages 7 and up) lives in a world with little music, food, water, or heating oil. There is a lot of is destruction and fear, for her city is under attack. For amusement, the bored children launch their own attacks for amusement on crabby Mr. O, a man who was once famous for playing his cello. After devastating air strikes, Mr. O carries his cello daily to the middle of the square and plays Bach. When his cello is hit by an exploding shell and is reduced to "splintered wood and tangled strings", the little girl slips a condolence drawing under his door. The next day he gives her a special nod as he returns to play Bach on a harmonica. The beautifully-written text counters the sad setting and provides an example of how art is sometimes the only way to lighten the spirit.
Judy Sierra highlights a porcine character who saves the day in her retelling of a Balinese version of Hansel and Gretel, The Dancing Pig (HBJ, $16.00; ages 4-8). Klodan and Klonching, fond of dancing with their animals and mother, are tricked and captured by the evil witch Rangsasa. Their mother is devastated until rescue comes from the animals whose talents so captivate the evil witch that the girls are freed and she is destroyed. The story is filled with sounds and poetic Balinese words are generously peppered through the folktale.
Lynn Reiser's Earthdance (Greenwillow, $16.00; ages 4-8)blends space and dance in a fanciful way. Terra, performing in a school dance, asks her astronaut mother to bring her a picture for the end of the show. Her mother takes off for "a quick trip to the edge of the universe" and in a sequence of facing pictures,we see the unfolding of Terra's performance, as her mother's rocket speeds home. Mother and daughter meet in a perfect finale. Images of the spaceship placed against the backdrop of NASA photographs give a sense of the art of science.
My favorite books are those that link the arts to each other, or even to different disciplines. Sometimes passion for one art form pours over into another, as these new books show.
New in paperback is Amy Littlesugar's Marie in Fourth Position: The Story of Degas' "The Little Dancer" (Penguin Putnam, $5.99; ages 5-9) The focus character is Marie, a mere "rat" in the Paris Opera, who, despite all her practice, remains only an awkward and bruised dancer. Poverty brings her to Degas as a model, but she can not find the pose of a ballet star. The famous artist proposes a trade, "you will give me a pose that Paris will never forget, and I will teach you to have an imagination!" Finally, Marie poses successfully as she imagines herself a butterfly, and after many sessions, her dancing is transformed until she is more butterfly, than rat. Ian Schoenherr's art is reminiscent of Degas' oils, the last touch needed to unite a way the sculpture, story, and artist speak to children.
Music and art merge in Maria Strom's Rainbow Joe and Me (Lee and Low, $15.95; ages 4-8) Young Eloise loves color mixing, painting, and telling her best friend Rainbow Joe about her art adventures. Blind Rainbow Joe tells his young friend that he sees colors in his head and can mix them in his own special way to make them sing. This confuses Eloise, and even though he puts them in a context of vivid sensory experiences, she doubts him. The ever-curious Eloise has her answer when one day Rainbow Joe opens a big bag and pulls out a saxophone. As he plays, colors fly and blend into a beautiful rainbow. A wonderful book to explain to young children how the arts intensify and translate into one another.
If you need proof that science is an art form, you can find it in Jay Young's The Art of Science: A Pop-Up Adventure in Art (Candlewick, $27.99; ages 8 to adult) Jay Young wanted to be an engineer until a physics teacher led him to a career of art and paper engineering. Young unites two diverse practices with links that are thought-provoking and exciting. He explains how the unpredictable patterns of nature which fascinate scientists in studies like magnetism, have plagued artists like Rousseau and John Constable who also try to make sense of a disordered world. Doing is believing in this book, for each page hosts hands-on activities that help readers understand the concepts. A book within this book gives great descriptions for science-artists who want to dig deeper.
Children are drawn to pop-up books and they can make their own with the help of David Carter and James Diaz's The Elements of Pop-Up: A Pop-Up Book for Aspiring Paper Engineers (Simon and Schuster,$35.00; ages 9 and up ). The book reveals all varieties of techniques like wheels, pull-tabs, and folds with careful directions and, of course, pop-up examples.
David Macauley looks back to the creation of the book that launched his career twenty-five years ago in Building the Book Cathedral (Houghton Mifflin,$29.95; ages 9 to adult ). Award-winning Cathedral, Macauley's first book and "sentimental favorite", was created with no real knowledge of Gothic construction or bookmaking and now, Macauley looks back to assess his path of discovery. Amazingly, Macauley manages to capture creative process inside the covers of a book, from the first idea sketches that landed him the contract, through preliminary sketches, a story board, research, and drafting efforts. Ingeniously, Macauley presents Cathedral, with notes on his process, stories that happened during the creation, difficulties he faced and tricks he uncovered to deal with them. He offers comments on composition, perspective, criticism of his own work, realities of deadlines, mistakes that went into the first edition, and what he would have done in hindsight. Though it's clear the book is a thoughtful journey back, it is filled with humor, and voice that makes you feel as if David is a good friend relating his journey.