- Brush Mona Lisa's Hair - Public Domain
Young children learn best when engaging their senses. The Touch the Art board book series by Julie Appel and Amy Guglielmo introduces children to the fine arts by engaging their senses of sight, hearing, and touch. They can look at the pictures, while listening to lively rhyming text, then touch the artwork. Each picture has some kind of texture to touch, flap to open, or material to manipulate. The interaction with the book makes children come back to them time and time again.
At the end of the book, the authors have included descriptions of each featured painting and brief author sketch. This allows for the books to be used with even older children. They also provide the foundation for studies on different genres, as each book has a theme. Four books were published in 2006.
20th Century Modern Art
The book Feed Matisse's Fish [Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006, ISBN 978-1-4027-3568-4] features "Great Modern Art from the 20th Century. Featured artists include Marc Chagall, Edward Hopper, Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Georges Seurat, and Grant Wood.
Children can feel textures in Matisse's Goldfish, and Rivera's The Flower Carrier. They can play with fringe on Kahlo's Self-Portrait and the braid on Modigliani's Girl with Braids. They are exposed to impressionism, realism, and Dynamic Cubism.
Pop Warhol's Top [Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006, ISBN 978-1-4027-3569-1] is about "Great Pop Art from the 20th Century." Artists featured throughout this book include Jim Dine, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Wayne Thiebaud, and Andy Warhol.
Children can pull on the tab on Warhol's Campbell Soup Can (Tomato), but be cautioned that it has a tendency to come off and is not easily fixed. They can poke at the sticky mustard bread on Lichtenstein's Mustard on White and feel the beach ball in his Girl with Ball. They can feel the textures of Dine's Woodcut Bathrobe and flutter Marilyn's eyelashes.
19th Century Art
Make Van Gogh's Bed [Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006, ISBN 978-1-4027-3567-7] features "Great Art from the Impressionists and Artists of the Late 19th Century." Featured artists include Mary Cassatt, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh.
Children can pull the blanket down on Van Gogh's bed and flip the tutu of Degas's dancer. They can feel the sand on the beach on Cassatt's Children on the Beach and the stars in Van Gog's Starry Night.
Classic Art
Brush Mona Lisa's Hair [Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006, ISBN 978-1-4027-3566-0] features "Great Art from the Masters of the Renaissance to the Baroque." Artists include Sandro Botticelli. Leonardo da Vinci, Piero della Francesca, Frans Hals, Jan van Eyck, Raphael Sanzio, Georges de la Tour, Diego Velazquez, Johannes Vermeer.
Children can play with Mona Lisa's hair, the feathers on the wings of Raphael's cherubs, and the horse tail on Velazquez's Prince Balthasar Carolos on Horseback. Feel the smoothness of the pearl earring in Vermeer's famous painting. Open the flap to see which card the lady is hiding in de la Tour's The Card-Sharp.
The Touch the Art series has been tested on children ages 2-6. They become quickly engrossed in their interactions with each book and return to them again and again. These books are a great way to introduce children to the beauty of art across the ages. Information provided at the end of the books provide a platform on which to build further studies.
Andrea Coventry - Andrea Coventry has been working with children for over twenty years, ages ranging from a few days old up to age 18. Experience has ranged ...
