A Child’s Book of Art

A Child’s Book of Art is an over-sized, hardback book for children.  In it, Lucy Micklethwait has selected words and works of art which describe those words.

For example, one two-page spread is titled “The Seasons.”  To illustrate spring, Micklethwait chose Spring by Claude Monet.  For summer, she chose Wheatfield with Reaper by Vincent van Gogh; for fall, Autumn Leaves by John Everett Millais; and for winter, The Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

There are 61 pages in the book, so it is not a book to rush through with your child.  We went through slowly, one two-page spread each day, talking about what we saw in the pictures – the colors, the lines, what about them made us think of the word(s) on the page.

Even if you have no background in art (like me), you can go through this book with your child.   Micklethwait chose a wide variety of art to illustrate the words – including pottery from Ancient Greeks, paintings from the 1500s, all the way up through modern day art.

This book is a simple, and quite frankly, a delightful way to introduce art to yourself and your children.

Recommended ages 2 through 8.