Dan's Angel: A Detective's Guide to the Language of Paintings - Hardcover

Sturgis, Alexander

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1929132476 ISBN 13: 9781929132478

Publisher: Kane Miller Book Pub, 2003

Synopsis

The tale of a museum tour led by the Archangel Gabriel from Fra Angelico's "Annunciation" serves to introduce paintings from the Renaissance to Jackson Pollock and the symbols they use to express their meanings.

About this title

About the Author

Award-winning illustrator Lauren Child's captivating art together with Alexander Sturgis' clear and clever explanations make Dan's journey through art history a visual treat as well as an authoritative introduction to ways of looking at art.

Reviews

Grade 1-4-Dan skateboards to a museum, and goes in to see paintings "-full of strange and beautiful things." While he senses that some had stories to tell, he realizes, "You can't read paintings like you can read books." A voice tells him otherwise: it's Fra Angelico's Angel Gabriel, who flies out of The Annunciation and accompanies the boy through the galleries. From Sandro Botticelli (whose sleeping Mars and watchful Venus show the power of love over war) to Pablo Picasso (whose weeping woman mourns the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War) and beyond, they use their eyes and their common sense to deepen their appreciation of the artwork. A dozen paintings are reproduced (all but two are European), all set against colorful backgrounds and peopled by Child's distinctively wonderful cartoons of children, adults, and a black-and-white cat. The visuals work a bit better than the text, though, since the premise lacks the authentic feel that characterizes the best flights of fancy. By comparison, Jacqueline Weitzman's You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (Dial, 1998) seems a delightful bit of froth, but lacks the educational agenda of Dan's Angel. Interest in introducing children to fine art in an accessible manner is high, and this fun book succeeds quite well.
Lauralyn Persson,Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreS-Gr. 3. Young Dan is an aspiring detective in search of a mystery--any mystery. It's the clues that he loves, and when he wanders into an art museum, he finds walls filled with mysterious stories to be solved. At first he is frustrated because he can't find clues to help him work out what's happening in each image. Then he gets a little help from an unlikely source: the angel Gabriel in Fra Angelico's The Annunciation, who steps out of the painting and begins to challenge Dan with questions about what's in the pictures. There's not much framework to this lighthearted art fantasy, and Dan is sometimes too precociously observant. But Sturgis, a curator at the National Gallery in London, writes in lively, clear language that will encourage children to find their own stories in the artworks. Child's bright illustrations, which combine her signature zany collages with reproductions of old masters, extend the sense that art is accessible and fun with images of Gabriel, who, despite his wings, prefers to browse the galleries on skateboard. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Kane Miller Book Pub
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1929132476
• ISBN 13: 9781929132478
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Child Lauren
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 38