Customer Reviews

Miro (Art F/Child) (Oop) (Art for Children (Chelsea House))

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The book's story is written in a style mimicing Miro's early surrealistic style and would be difficult for many young readers to grasp, many details are left out, the reader must figure them out as they go along. An interesting technique but probably more confusing than appealing to most youngsters. The insets of photos of the artist,his work,places he lived and things which influenced him all with explanations are excellent and highly informative.

At a school sleepover Cecilia is puzzled when her teacher says "you're wrapped in a Miro! You're sure to have sweet dreams." The next morning Cecilia learns a Miro is not a type of sleeping bag, but the name of a famous artist. Claire-Helene Blanquet combines this narrative with information about the life and art of Joan Miro. "Earth and Sky" is illustrated with both reproductions of Miro's paintings and photographs of the artist and the places where he lived and worked. I have the feeling that while Blanquet is obviously responsible for the story of Cecilia and her friends learning about Miro and trying to use his ideas about art in their classroom, that John Goodman is not only responsible for the translation but the sidebars that get into considerably more detail about Miro and his art. So this is really an interesting hodge-podge of a book and as long as you read it in that light I think it will make more sense to you. At the end of the story, Cecilia and her friends finally discover the painting that inspired the design of her sleeping bag was "The Skiing Lesson." Of course, young American readers might not be as familiar with Miro as they would with other Spanish artists, such as Goya, Picasso and Dali. I will have to track down some more volumes from the "Art for Children" series from Chelsea House Publishers to see what they do with Da Vinci, Matisse, Van Gogh, and one of my personal favorites, Rousseau.