Easy Books Nonfiction Books Art Web Sites for Kids Local Art Museums

EASY PICTURE BOOKS Browne, Anthony The Shape Game The author/illustrator describes an outing to an art museum that changed his life forever. ©2003 Hurd, Thacher Art Dog When the Mona Woofa is stolen from the Dogopolis Museum of Art, a mysterious character who calls himself Art Dog tracks down and captures the thieves. ©1996 Raczka, Bob No One Saw: Ordinary Things Through the Eyes of an Artist With simple, rhyming text and beautifully reproduced paintings, this book highlights the way in which the artist looked at the world in his or her own way. ©2002 Reynolds, Peter H. The Dot A child is encouraged to draw by an understanding art teacher. ©2003 Weitzman, Jacqueline Preiss You Can’t Take a Balloon Into The Museum of Fine Arts While a brother and sister, along with their grandparents, visit the Museum of Fine Arts, the balloon they were not allowed to bring into the museum floats around Boston, causing a series of mishaps at various tourist sites. ©2002 You Can’t Take a Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum In this wordless story a young girl and her grandmother view works inside The Metropolitan Museum of Art, while their balloon floats around New York City causing a series of mishaps that mirror scenes in the museum’s artworks. ©1998 NONFICTION Micklethwait, Lucy A Child’s Book of Art (J701.1) An introduction to art that uses well-known works of art to illustrate familiar words. ©1993 Micklethwait, Lucy A Child’s Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings (J701.1) Invites the reader to take a closer look at paintings through investigation. The pictures are presented in small sections with questions, which are then answered on the opposite page while looking at the entire painting. ©1999 Wolfe, Gillian Oxford First Book of Art (J701.1) An introduction to the world of art, specifically tailored to the interests of young children using selected pieces of art which questions their content and meaning as well as inquire about the artists who created them. ©1999 Brown, Laurene Krasny Visiting the Art Museum (J708.13) As a family wanders through an art museum, they see examples of various art styles. The last page has tips for enjoying an art museum. ©1986 Fritz, Jean Leonardo’s Horse (J730.92) This is the story of a “lost” sculpture of Leonardo da Vinci’s, a horse that was never cast in bronze. Many centuries later an American, Charles Dent, tried to recreate the horse which was finally completed in 1999. ©2001 Cumming, Robert Just Look...A Book About Paintings (J750) An introduction to the various elements that contribute to the overall effect of a painting. The elements are perspective, modeling, anatomy, light and color, and mood. ©1979 Blake, Quentin Tell Me A Picture (J750.14) Provides guidance for studying paintings and illustrations from the National Gallery in London to find the story within each. ©2003 Greenburg, Jan Action Jackson (J759.13) Imagines Jackson Pollock at work during the creation of one of his paint-swirled and splattered canvasses. ©2002 Nikola-Lisa, W. The Year With Grandma Moses (J759.13) A collection of paintings and memoirs by the American folk artist describing the seasons and their related activities in rural upstate New York. ©2000 Bjork, Christina Linnea in Monet’s Garden (J759.13) Illustration, Monet’s paintings, actual family photographs of the Monet family and a lively text take us into the world of Monet through Linneas’s visit to the great painter’s home. ©1985 Greenberg, Jan Chuck Close: Up Close (J921) A biography of the revisionist artist who achieved prominence in the late 1960s for enormous, photographically realistic, black and white portraits of himself and his friends. ©1998 Stanley, Diane Michelangelo (J921) A biography of the Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, well known for his work on the Sistene Chapel and St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. The artwork in this book is illustrations combined with actual pictures of Michelangelo’s work. ©2000 ART WEB SITES FOR KIDS A. Pintura, Art Detective Outstanding, clever, and stimulating site using a Dashiell Hammett detective style to explore art in some depth. http://www.eduweb.com/pintura Albright-Knox Art Games This interactive site engages children in art activities that help them to learn about artists and the works of art in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. http://kids.albrightknox.org The Fine Art Museums of San Francisco Wonderful site combining multiple museum holdings. Take virtual tours of different exhibitions. http://www.thinker.org/ Inside Art What if you were trapped inside a painting and had to solve a mystery to get out? An adventure inside art history. http://www.eduweb.com/insideart/index.html Metropolitan Museum of Art Check out the Explore and Learn page. Don’t miss the FAQ’s For Kids with answers to questions about The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler. http://metmuseum.org/ Museum of Modern Art Destination: Modern Art is the place to check out what’s new at MOMA. http://www.moma.org/destination/# National Gallery of Art Explore stories in art, take a post card tour, and directions to art activities and projects. http://www.nga.gov/kids LOCAL ART MUSEUMS IN THE CAPITAL DISTRICT (no more than one hour away) Albany Institute of History and Art Albany New York www.albanyinstitute.org Bennington Museum Bennington, Vermont www.benningtonmuseum.com The Berkshire Museum Pittsfield, Massachusetts www.berkshiremuseum.org Chesterwood Estate and Museum Stockbridge, Massachusetts www.chesterwood.org Clark Art Institute Williamstown, Massachusetts www.clarkart.edu Hyde Collection Art Museum Glens Falls, New York www.hydeartmuseum.org/ Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art North Adams, Massachusetts www.massmoca.org/ New York State Museum Albany, New York www.nysm.nysed.gov/ The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge Stockbridge, Massachusetts www.nrm.org Tang Museum at Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, New York www.skidmore.edu/tang/main.html University Art Museum University at Albany, Albany, New York www.albany.edu/museum Williams College Museum of Art Williamstown, Massachusetts www.wcma.org

This is a list of art books, web sites, and local museums for young art lovers.