Best Children's Art History
Leonardo da Vinci was a gifted painter, talented musician, and dedicated scientist and inventor, designing flying machines, submarines, and even helicopters. Roberta Edwards lives in New York, New York.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My second grade son LOVES these books."
"How great is it to just go to your phone and download a good kids book when you little one forgets to bring home their nightly reading from school?"
"These series are wonderful for my 9year old son."
"We were going to take our granddaughter to the Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City, but wanted her to know a little about da Vinci before we went."
"Good book."
"They would read their own and then read other that they had heard of."
"I felt the story motivates and also encourages children to know that failure often means a way to success and to explore and do what you love, is a life worth living."
"While I w as on Amazon's website hunting for books for my 9 and 15 year old grandchildren to read before visiting Florence, Italy this summer, Amazon "linked" me to this book."
Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos , written by Monica Brown and illustrated by John Parra, is based on the life of one of the world's most influential painters, Frida Kahlo, and the animals that inspired her art and life. Featuring charming visuals and lively, often lyrical prose, this picture book introduces Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, interweaving biographical details while highlighting her special relationships with pets...Rich-hued, folk art–style illustrations incorporate evocative touches, fanciful details, and collagelike compositions. With their folk-art sensibility, Parra’s elegant acrylic paintings evoke Kahlo’s style, her palette and her Mexican environment, but he creates a mood of harmony with the natural world and a lively, cheerful abundance all his own.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a sweet book by the talented artist Frida Kahlo."
"Beautiful book."
"The book is age appropriate and deals with the tragic parts of Kahlo's life in a good manner, not neglecting to mention them, but not dwelling on her illnesses or chronic pain or difficulties either. I liked how the illustrations in the book included reminders of her chronic pain and difficulties, such as a wheelchair and prosthesis, without explicitly overemphasizing them."
"This picture book biography focuses on Frida Kahlo’s lifelong relationship with animals. Brown uses the animals in Kahlo’s life to point out specific characteristics of her personality, each tied to a specific pet."
"I feel like the texture and quality of Frida Kahlo's life, which really comes through in this story, gives illustrator John Parra a chance to shine and do a kind of world building that I don't remember seeing in his other work."
"A picture book biography of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo that highlights her childhood and teen years (and some adult life too) through the lens of the pets she kept and how she was like some of them. The animal focus and the use of similes to compare the animals’ characteristics with Frida’s brought up aspects of Frida Kahlo’s personality and stories from her childhood none of the other books have touched on. Kids will be enchanted by the various animals she had as pets and will start hunting down Kahlo’s artwork in which they appear (there’s a list in the back of the book along with some further information on Kahlo and her pets)."
In the tradition of Black Dog's best-selling Child's Introduction books, which include The Story of the Orchestra and A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky , A Child's Introduction to Art introduces kids ages 9 through 12 to the art world's most famous painters, styles, and periods, all brought to life through full-color photographs of 40 masterpieces, as well as charming original illustrations. This lively and kidcentric entry highlights 40 big names, mostly European and male artists (Michelangelo, Pierre-Auguste Monet, Diego Velázquez, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, etc. A few very small nods of recognition to Asian, ancient Greek and Roman, Egyptian, African and Native American art are offered?though at 96 pages one could hardly expect an inclusive, definitive resource.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Bought is as a gift, but I wish I had it when my kids were young."
"Great book, use it for homeschooling."
"This is a wonderful art book for children (& adults)!"
"Loved the information about the artists and the beautiful pictures!"
"Great art history lessons to use in the classroom or for sharing with your children at home!"
"Great simple and fun info about artist great for kids or if you was a fun quick reference."
"Awesome book, saw at the library and had to purchase."
Best Children's Painting Books
For nothing is ever as it seems in Istvan Banyai's sleek, mysterious landscapes of pictures within pictures, which will tease and delight readers of all ages. PreSchool-Grade 3?This wordless picture book re-creates the effect of a camera lens zooming out. For example, one illustration shows a boy on a cruise ship, the next shows him from a distance, and the next reveals the whole ship.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My now 16 YO daughter and I loved this book when she was little."
"Laminated each sheet - put your team in a room."
"It is a great book that believes in "a good picture is worth thousands of words" and there is one good picture in every page of the book."
"Worked great for a staff meeting!!!!"
"But this second time, students need to also break themselves into self-styled "time periods.""
"We used Zoom in a Team Building excercise."
"a great book and I use it in class to develop communication skills."
"This was a great exercise."
Best Children's Drawing Books
Filled with intricate illustrations and elaborate designs used in the making of the Harry Potter films, this book invites you to imbue the wizarding world with color in your own explorations of Hogwarts Castle, the Forbidden Forest, and much more.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A good number of the designs are printed across two pages and merge into the bind (which is glued rather than sewn.). I did a count and this is what I came up with: 40 one page designs, 4 of which are “wallpaper” repeating patterns; 19 designs spread across two pages – 5 of which are wallpaper style designs. I tested my coloring tools: all markers bleed through though Staedler triplus fineliners merely left a shadow of color rather than full ink – but you could tell what the color was from the back of the page. Gel pens did not leak through but again, there was a very light shadow. In the end, the fact that ink could leak through and the pages were printed doubled sided was enough for me to take away a point."
"Coloring the pages is great fun for my teen son an it's a good stress-reliever/distraction."
"I would have given the book 5-stars had there be drawings and photos of Sirius Black and the scene of Mrs. Weasley killing Bellatrix."
"Favorite part about this coloring book is that they include pictures in the back to let you know what some of the colors are.For instance there's a page with the logo for the houses on it and while I know what colors they essentially make up I still needed to look and see which colors went where. There were a few things I didn't like about this coloring book, I've colored in a few different adult coloring books and this one by far has to be the hardest."
"I will be ordering the additional Harry Potter coloring books from Scholastic shortly."
"But let's face it, the familiar faces from the movies will appeal to a far larger audience). There are some color reference pages in the back - which includes completed artwork and screenshots from the movies. I briefly considered taking off a star for the "raven" on the Ravenclaw crest but decided that was probably a bit harsh for what is otherwise a great book that will bring me hours of enjoyment."
Best Children's Fashion Books
Kids can sew too! Best of all, this practical, attractive sewing book features finished projects that look like they were actually made by children.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Unfortunately, so much of the sewing kits, books, and supplies are geared towards girls. Not only is it full of beautiful photographs that help teach sewing steps, I was pleased to see how many boys were included in the photographs--sewing just like their female counterparts."
"My 7 year old daughter loves this book."
"My daughter loves it and is always planning new projects to make."
"Such a lovely book!"
"Some fun ideas."
"Nice book but grand didn't really use it much."
"good instructions for beginner sewer."
"The pictures and instructions are perfect for a tween girl to follow."
Best Children's Cartooning Books
Nothing satisfies anime artists more than creating original characters for comics and graphic novels—and bestselling author Christopher Hart helps them achieve this goal. Christopher Hart is the leading author of art instruction books in the US.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I am a professional animator myself and this books reminds me of the things I learned while getting my fine arts degrees. And the images are large enough to trace with tracing paper so my daughter can begin to get a feel for the correct angles and proportions of the character's features."
"My teen daughter is super into drawing anime and manga characters, but always has issues with things like hands and eyes."
"My only suggestion is the author could provide a more detailed step by step on how to draw, but it's good enough for now."
"My daughters review because it was a gift for her: I love that it actually explains the steps on how to draw specific things; however I didn’t like that it didn’t explain how to draw the hands, eyes and heads thouroughly."
"I bought this as a gift to an aspiring artist and she was impressed as well as I at the attention to detail and how easy it was to learn from a book."
"I would say this is a decent good book but I wouldn't recommend it for beginners because the book doesn't completely go over the steps."
"I bought several of these kinds of books."
"According to the recipient, "It's cool"."
Best Children's Sculpture Books
Find the sticker, peel the sticker, place the sticker. Workman Publishing Company has been producing award-winning calendars, cookbooks, parenting guides, and children’s titles, as well as gardening, humor, self-help, and business books, since 1968.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought this book for my six-year-old hoping it would be an activity he could do independently."
"Stickers and pages are thick and good quality."
"This was one of my 9 year old son's favorite Christmas gifts."
"A lot of fun for kids and adults alike."
"Such a fun book for a kid that loves to paint, draw, lover of animals, anyone who loves stickers!"
"Bought this for my 6 year old daughter for Christmas."
"Grandkids (ages 6 and 3) love it."