So it has been a long time since I’ve done a kid’s book spotlight. It’s not that we stopped reading; it’s more that we just stopped reading anything… interesting. Magoo only wants to read the $1 princess books we bought at Jewel which is fine the first hundred times, and the Goose and I usually look at picture books and label things.
But we went to the art museum yesterday, and I came across the most amazing children’s books, and I had to share.
Each book is centered around a famous artist. We bought a box set that comes with Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, and Degas. There is a painting (or a portion of a painting) on each page with text that creates a sort of poem to go along with it. They aren’t fiction, and yet the text does more than merely describe the painting. Our favorite is the Degas (Dancing with Degas) because it’s all about ballerinas getting ready for the performance and then it goes into the actual performance, discussing the sounds and whatnot.
Magoo has been pretty interested in them all day and the Goose likes looking through the pictures as well. They both spend countless hours just staring at the pictures in books, so what better thing to stare at than amazing art!
I’m really excited to take them back to the museum after we have read these for a few months because I know Magoo will get excited to see the pictures in real life.
For those not interested in these four artists, they also sell Picasso, Cassatt, Renoir, Seurat, Rousseau and Gauguin. I started to read Magoo the Seurat one (Sunday with Seurat) at the museum, but she wasn’t too interested. It could be that the pictures didn’t capture her imagination, but I’m thinking it’s more likely that she just wanted to run around and play with the blocks in the kid’s section.
I’m planning on buying some more of these once we get sick of the four we have. They really are excellent books, and they are so different than the same old typical books you see at the bookstore. I highly recommend these.