Creatures

This "A First Look at Art" series has activity-filled books which teach children how to look at paintings and sculpture while helping them to develop their own creative skills. It contains projects, art tips and examples from well-known works of art. This title looks at creatures in art.

Reviewed with Ruth Thomson's Portraits.

Gr. 2-5. Combining art history with hands-on projects, these unique titles from the A First Look at Art series introduce active, creative ways to learn about visual arts. Both books feature well-known artworks, accompanied by questions and commentary that encourage readers to view images carefully and learn more about artists' techniques. In Creatures, a particularly successful spread juxtaposes the serene, fuzzy feline in Tsuguhara Foujita's The Cat with Pablo Picasso's fierce, jagged animals in Cat and Bird to show how artists use line to create mood and texture. Activity pages alternate between the art instruction. A few of the projects require adult assistance and special equipment, such as computers, but there are many simple craft suggestions (the wonderful monster "wanted" posters in Creatures) that span the curriculum by requiring students to do basic research and create stories. Thomson's message seems to be that there's always more to notice and learn about a painting, and in direct, spare language, she offers excellent tools to help readers begin looking closely on their own. Gillian Engberg
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