The Folk Art Counting Book - Hardcover

Watson, Amy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810933063 ISBN 13: 9780810933064

Publisher: Harry N Abrams Inc, 1992

Synopsis

A guide to counting uses examples from American folk art to illustrate numbers from one to twenty, featuring such works of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century art as The Baby in the Red Chair, The Monkey Picture, and The Quilting Party.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2-- Resembling earlier ABC Museum Books published by Abrams, this one uses selected works of folk art to illustrate numbers 1 through 20. ``Count 1 whirligig, count 1 baby'' reads the text. A stern wooden military figure stands ready to whirl in the wind, while a baby rests peacefully in the accompanying painting by an unknown 19th-century artist. The numeral one, printed in clear serif type, overlays a simply rendered piece quilt. Each number is illustrated in this style on pleasingly designed, double-page, full-color speads. A foreword note describes folk art and explains how the book can be enjoyed; an appendix provides brief information about the artifacts in the illustrations. The supplementary text offers little to help place the objects within a child's frame of reference. Most often this lack is just unfortunate, but in two cases, it is more serious. Two watercolors, ``The Old Plantation'' and ``Indian War Dance''--factual as they are as historical documents--may strike some readers as offensive, and there is not enough background information to give readers the historical context in which they were created. Nonetheless, the book remains successful as an aesthetically pleasing counting book. --Catherine Wood, Shelburne Museum, VT
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

``Count 4 wooden men'' in varied styles or ``4 cats playing'' in an anonymous 19th-century watercolor; ``Count 14 train wheels/How many passengers?'' in a 1970 painting by Jack Savitsky, or ``20 eagles'' in an elaborate double-woven coverlet. The instructions are unimaginative, though the task varies somewhat with the material; what's of interest here is the quality and variety of the art, all from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in Williamsburg, Virginia, and duly identified on the last page. An appealing, handsomely designed introduction to art forms from ornamental birth certificates to whirligigs, with subjects from the biblical (The Peaceable Kingdom) to the nearly contemporary (Eskimo Dogs, 1960). (Nonfiction/Picture book. 5+) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N Abrams Inc
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0810933063
• ISBN 13: 9780810933064
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40