Another Great Art Book Series for Little Kids: Colleen Carroll's How Artists See Series

I've loved discovering high-quality art books for children because I think that there's no reason they shouldn't start seeing grown-up art at an early age. There's no need for high-level analysis or art history for years to come, but just having these images in their visual memory banks can't hurt and there's no reason to think it won't provide the same kind of vague cognitive benefits as early listening to great works of music.

ANYWAY, I just found another series I love, in addition to the Lucy Mickelthwait and Philip Yenawine books I've recommended in the past. These are by an educator named Colleen Carroll and they're all called "How Artists See _____." Each book contains sixteen works of art, divided into four themes. For example, How Artists See America is divided into West, South, Northeast and Midwest.

At first I thought the books were a little more text-heavy than I preferred, but as I actually read through the first three I found at a library booksale (People, Animals and Weather), I came to really appreciate her thoughtful questions about what techniques the artist used to convey feelings or ideas. She uses a great range of eras and styles, and isn't noticeably repetitive of other children's art books in my collection.

The cover of How Artists See Families uses a relatively recent painting of an American family.

This painting called "First Steps" by Vincent Van Gogh is much sweeter and more wholesome you'd expect. Van Gogh's brand is "genius with violent mental problems" but this is more like one of Mary Cassatt's family images. 

I'll try to post a full title list here soon, but in the meantime, if you spot one of these at a yard sale, grab it!

Secret Sequel? A Child's Book of Prayer in Art

One of my favorite book treasures is A Child's Book of Art by Lucy Micklethwait. It's fairly popular amongst homeschoolers, I believe because it's recommended by the Sonlight curriculum. Anyway, imagine my joy when I eventually discovered there was a "sequel," also done by Micklethwait, called A Child's Book of Play in Art. For some reason, the second book is much less celebrated than the first, despite being equally ideal for talking to little kids about a variety of concepts, not to mention exposing them to a wide array of art styles. 

Anyway, I always thought the second book had a rather odd title, because according to marketing law, the sequel should have been named something like A Child's Book of More Art. Well, I just found another book by the same publisher (Dorling Kindersley) from the same era (early 1990s) called A Child's Book of Prayer in Art, devised by Sister Wendy, and I think the mystery of the odd title is solved. 

I suspect there was a DK editor out there who saw a possible series idea in these A Child's Book of X in Art, but for some reason, the concept never really took off. Anyway, the Prayer book is organized differently than the other two, but it is just...I swear it's made me cry it's so beautifully presented and written, and I am a grinch. Reading this book gives me the same feeling I got watching Archbishop Desmond Tutu on The Daily Show: Everybody is wonderful, and everything is gonna be all right.

Sister Wendy says that looking at art is one way of keeping in touch with god.

The book is fiercely non-denominational while still being deeply spiritual. There are Christian images in the book, but for the pages on Choosing Heaven, Sister Wendy chose a picture of Charon crossing the Styx, rather than something about Jesus, which might have been the obvious choice.

Museum Colors, Gisela Voss

I love Museum Shapes (bought used) and Museum 123 (library), so I ordered Museum ABC and Museum Colors online. I was expecting to get the Metropolitan Museum of Art-published Museum Colors book with the same cover pictured on Amazon and the Met site, but instead I got a very interesting board book with the same title, published by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1993, authorship credited to Gisela Voss, sometimes listed as Gi Voss. (As far as I can tell the Met book doesn't have a named author.) I think the Amazon listing has the two books conflated. Anyway, here are some selections from the Boston book in case you like fine art-based concept books as much as I do. I'll be interested to see what's in the Met book when it eventually wanders into my life!

Museum Colors by Gisela Voss, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1993; front cover and stair-step colored pages.

Museum Colors - Tom Browne, Two of Holland's

Museum Colors - Joseph Boze, Portrait of Two Boys

Museum Colors - Ito Jakuchu, Cockatoo

Museum Colors - Donald Oenslager, Off the Ballroom of the Windsor Hotel

Museum Colors by Gisela Voss, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1993; back cover.

Further Reading: Little-Kid Concept Books That Use Fine Art; Lucy Micklethwiat Bibliography