Customer Reviews

I Spy: An Alphabet in Art

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As a parent, I'm always interested in expanding my children's personal horizons. Introducing our children to the world of fine art is a high priority in our family---but taking preschoolers to the art museum or a local gallery is oftentimes a disaster in the making!

Enter this lovely little book, "I Spy ~ An Alphabet in Art."

Remember the ageless game of I Spy?

"I spy with my little eye something that begins with A."

This book works its way through the entire alphabet letter by letter with a good-sized famous painting on each page. Classic works by Rousseau, Van Eyck, Picasso, Botticelli, Matisse, Miro', Renoir, Chagall, Seurat, and many others.

Many of the art books currently produced for children contain several small reproductions on each page. By limiting the art work to one large reproduction to each two-page spread, the child can focus on the painting without being distracted by other clutter on the page.

My two-year-old sat for an hour this afternoon entranced with the art. She would turn a page, prop herself up on her elbows, and gaze at the picture for a long time. Now and then, she'd come running over to me with the book in hand.

"Mommy! Look at the birds in the cage! The birds live in a cage...."

Art Appreciation in its simplest, most basic form. Seeing the painting for the first time---and then looking at it more intently to see beyond the initial first impressions.

For this busy mother with limited time and resources, it's a pleasure to find a book of this type. Brava, Lucy Micklethwait!

This is a fantastic book. There is a different picture for every letter of the alphabet. Each picture is different in style, type, artist etc. There might be Japanese woodcuts, Picasso, watercolors and so on.

This is an excellent introduction to art and types of art and styles and artists.

Also, in each picture is something that goes with the letter of the alphabet. Ball for b and so on.

A great way to practice beginning sounds and letter recognition.

This is a lovely book with great pictures and there are many educational type things you can do while enjoying time with your child. Well worth the money.

Enjoy.

I can't tell you how wonderful this book is for me and my two-and-a-half year old daughter. It is such a delight to curl up in bed and turn the pages as she gleefully points out the item that starts with the letter A, B, C...and so on. We've only read it a handful of times, but she's already gotten each picture and letter memorized. It makes me so happy to be able to introduce her to fine art at such a young age and for her to find so much enjoyment from it. This is truly a gem of book for every parent & child's bookshelf!

My three year old instantly loved this book. Only a few letters and pictures were difficult for him to connect M= Magpie and J=Jug but C=cat and D=dog were easy. He enjoys reading it with me or he'll pour over it alone reading it to himself. I highly recommend this book.

This is a lovely book with which to introduce the alphabet and classical art to your child(ren). Each two-page spread contains, on the lefthand page, the jingle "I spy with my little eye something beginning with ... " and the upper and lower case of a letter of the alphabet, while the righthand page contains a large reproduction of a work of art by one of the masters -- Rousseau, Hogarth, Picasso, Botticelli, Vermeer, Sargent, Renoir, Seurat, etc. Kids can think about the alphabet while being exposed to some great art.

Terrific idea!

This book is fun for both child and adult. GREAT way to teach the word usage of letters of the alphabet through beautiful artwork. Very surprising what kids can do!! Only several letters are unrealistically hard for a 4-8 year old, but the majority are expertly chosen.

My son is autistic and has always been obsessed with the Alphabet. This book is one of his all time favorites. He carries this around with him constantly.

I highly reccommend this book--it is an excellent introduction to the arts. Some of the references are a bit vague in terms of everyday language, e.g M is for Magpie or H for the teeny heart on the playing card. But it is quite easy to make a substitution or let the kids find their own match. My almost 3yr old son loves it! Thank you for this wonderful intro to a much larger and beautiful world.

Lucy Micklethwait is a thoughtful children's book creator. When her daughter was small, Lucy would sit with her and look at art books. They would talk about each item in the painting. While they may not have discussed the meaning, the first step in developing art appreciation and understanding is art awareness. What better way to teach a child awareness than literally let the child point out items in the painting?

Even though I am now a children's librarian bringing this book to you, in another life time I was a high school teacher. One course I taught was a kind of art appreciation. The first activity I did was post a dozen famous prints across the board, then ask students to pick their favorite and write why and least favorite and say why. Examining a painting without knowing a thing about it is the first step in art awareness.

In "I Spy" there are 26 famous paintings. The one on the cover is "Son of Man" by Rene Magritte (a man). The words on the left page inside the book say: "I spy with my little eye something beginning with Aa." On the right side is the painting.

Here is a sampling of other included paintings: Picasso's "Sitting Woman with a Fish Hat" (let their little imagination roam with this one!), Goya's "Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuniga," Matisse's "Interior with Etruscan Vase," Renoir's "Umbrellas," and Hockney's "A Bigger Splash."

What a wonderful way to reinforce the alphabet, introduce the child to masterpieces of art, show cultural and time differences in clothing, style, and customs. Perhaps at some point you could locate a book in the library which has those paintings. Take one at a time to discuss meaning, technique, painter.

Ms Micklethwait has several other books to consider:
Colors: A First Art Book
I Spy Two Eyes: Numbers in Art
Child's Book of Art: Discover Great Paintings, A
Animals: A First Art Book

This is not at all like the other books in the I Spy series - and at first I did not like it because of it. The other books have pages filled with tons of things, and you pick out certain items in the poem. This has a series of famous art pieces, and the thing to look for is very obvious... so from a "spy" standpoint it is not the greatest. BUT I do like that it is exposing our young children (5 and 3) to famous works of art. We have tried to make it more difficult by finding different things to seek out in each famous painting. Still, I don't know that I would totally recommend unless you really wanted to expose your children to famous art - your child would likely find a book from the regular "I SPY" series more entertaining.