A Child's Book of Play in Art - Hardcover

Lucy Micklethwait

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0751354198 ISBN 13: 9780751354195

Publisher: Dorling Kindersley, 1996

Synopsis

Featuring 100 reproduced paintings from all over the world accompanied by fun activities, this book aims to introduce children to the world of art. The title, artist and date appear next to each work, and the "Picture List" describes the medium and provenance for those who want to find out more. A "Note to Parents" offers suggestions on how the pictures can be used as a starting point for discussion about colour, style or content.

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreS Up-Aptly subtitled, this book will convince the most reluctant art appreciator to "play in art." Forty-one works ranging from an Aboriginal bark painting to a slick Lichtenstein homage to Van Gogh's Arles bedroom are skillfully arranged in two-page "exhibits," with brief suggestions on how to approach them. "Let's Play" shows a Bruegel village scene in which peasant children play such games as "rolling hoops" and "riding a hobbyhorse," followed by a colorful Japanese woodblock print in which youngsters from a different time and place enjoy similar pastimes. In both pictures, readers are asked to find small highlighted details. But this title goes beyond the Waldoesque object-hunting of the earlier books. All five senses are brought into play. Readers are urged to imitate the sounds, interpret the costumes, adapt the patterns, and act out the stories of rich and exciting images from European, Japanese, Persian, and Native American art. Micklethwait teaches basic art concepts and pre-reading skills such as prediction and discrimination, but more importantly, the joy of interactive reading. The book's coffee-table size may pose shelving problems but is justified by the high-quality reproductions and the necessary white space separating the pictures and spare text. A final section lists pictures by title, description, artist, date, country, medium, size, and location of the original. The introductory notes are reassuring and inspiring, and the table of contents is illustrated with tantalizing details from the pages to follow.
Karen MacDonald, East Falmouth Branch Library, MA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

As is true of her previous books, Micklethwait (I Spy a Freight Train, p. 902, etc.) begins with the premise that art is accessible to everyone. By asking simple questions and playing easy matching games, readers learn to identify basic emotions and messages that are communicated through the universal language of images. Viewers are asked to find the hoop players in both Brueghel's ``Children's Games'' and a Japanese print of the same name, or to compare van Gogh's ``Bedroom at Arles'' with Lichtenstein's later rendition of the same room. Emotions, faces, smells, and animal noises are some of the ways Micklethwait invites children into these works of art. The color reproductions are excellent; a large format and roomy design allow readers to explore the paintings in detail. Included are well-known works and less familiar ones, with an emphasis on Western art. The most significant segment may be when readers are asked to make up their own stories of what's going on in several paintings. The stories behind the paintings are included, but the message is that what readers see in a painting has validity, that art need not be an elite subject. (Nonfiction. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0751354198
• ISBN 13: 9780751354195
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 64