Customer Reviews

In the Garden with Van Gogh

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My little son loves this book...the authors have successfully chosen pictures and written wonderful poems for each picture that tell a story throughout the book. I find the poems great because they aren't the usual baby drivel and the meter of them is soft and lilting...perfect for bedtime! We also bought the matisse story (the van gogh is a little bit better) but both are great...looking for more!

It's nice to find a board book that introduces higher culture to very young children. This one presents ten of Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings (Sunflowers, Irises, Haystacks in Provence, Olive Grove, The Sower, The Reaper (After Millet), First Steps (After Millet), Women Picking Olives, The Siesta, and The Starry Night) along with simple, rhyming text. This could be a great addition to a toddler's library, but the text is very choppy, bringing the ideas in the paintings together very loosely. It's a good "read-alone" for preverbal toddlers, but is annoying for adults to read aloud. It might have been better to simply introduce the paintings by name and leave it at that.

The author's have taken Van Gough's best and put together a rhyming book about the garden. The rhyme isn't easy but the cardboard backing and the bright photos are perfect for a toddler/new-born.

This is the first time I've felt compelled to post a review, but my six month old son absolutely loves these books! The colors are so vibrant and the accompanying rhymes can be read different ways on different days - slowly, quickly, with a rap cadence, with a British accent. They're fun for him, and, by varying the way I read them, they remain fun for me as well!

My daughter is 17 months old and loves this series of books. The artwork is representative of the original work and the words do a great job of telling a story for each picture in a descriptive way without "squashing creativity" for the reader.

We love this series of books. We began reading them to our daughter when she was first born. They are an excellent way to expose your children to beautiful works of art as well as rhythmic stories.

I have four of Julie Merberg's books and I love them all. This book has great Van Gogh paintings. The text goes with the pictures, but is a little more "adult" then it is child like. I still love this book and just read it to my daughter tonight before bed. These are great books to add to any child's collection because they're wonderful to start an interest in art appreciation.

I love how the text draws the reader to not only look at the painting but to live inside it a little. It fosters being an active participant in enjoying art, by imagining yourself inside the scene and what you'd be doing in it, or by describing the details within the painting. Since childhood I myself have done this, and it's a pleasure to begin the suggestion of this process to my baby daughter. At 5 months she likes looking at the pictures and enjoys the cute lilting rhymes, I can't wait til she's older and gets into the more interactive aspects. It'll be a great precursor to visiting museums and appreciating fine art.

I am a preschool teacher and enjoy teaching three year olds about art and artists. One artist that we recently studied was Vincent Van Gogh. The children painted sunflowers just like Van Gogh. They loved looking at this book and hearing the story that went along with it. They spent a lot of time studying his sunflower painting in this book and then painted beautiful sunflowers of their own!

I completely agree with previous reviewer: this book isn't the usual kid book drivel which ends up driving you crazy when you read over and over. What a great way to introduce young kids to classic paintings! The last page is "Starry Night" and sets up bedtime perfectly. My kids love it, and I do too.