Customer Reviews

Museum ABC

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My son's godmother gave it to him for his first birthday, and everyone at the party was entranced. It shows four paintings (or details from paintings) for each letter. For instance, H is for hair, and the pictures are of George Washington, a Japanese geisha, a French woman in the 18th century, and an Egyptian princess. This is a book you can look at again and again, and that adults won't tire of. A great, unusual ABC book.

This book is wonderful gift for children ages 2 and up. Age 2 children (like my son) will enjoy counting the apples on the A page, for example. Some of the art includes complex scenes that school-age children may enjoy losing themselves in. The book helps teach children about art and the alphabet in an intelligent, non-cutesy fashion. Each letter has a two-page layout: one page is: "[Letter] is for [one word]" in large type, and the second page is four different artistic intrepretations of that word, like: an Egyptian mural, a Japanese woodblock print, a Renaissance canvas, and nineteenth century French painting. What a refreshing change from cartoonish, character-based children's books!

This book is beautiful and can be admired by adults as well as children. The child can learn ABC's and words that begin with the ABC's. For each letter there are four pictures depicted of the word it starts with on the opposite page. For example, B is for BOAT and the opposite page has four paintings of boats from the museum on the opposite page.
This book is appropriate for ages 2-5.

I highly recommend this book. It is beautiful, it works on letters and word recognition and hopefully helps grow an appreciation for art and it's different forms. Not only does my son have it, it is now the baby gift that I give to all new parents. Love it.

As a parent, teacher and art lover, I'm always looking for quality art books for children. This book delivers beautifully. Both simple and elegant, it reinforces letter sounds and gives a mini "I Spy" with four paintings for each letter, as the above review describes. It is even careful to give the short sound for vowels; for example, U is for "umbrella," not "unicorn." This is an important distinction for very young children who will most likely learn the short sound first in school. Meanwhile, your child's eye is becoming increasingly comfortable viewing different styles of visual art, as each letter's object is offered in varying styles. Highly recommended - a great gift, too. Let's give our kids the gift of art appreciation!

The recommended reading level for this book is ages 4-6, but my almost 2 year old son LOVES it. I really enjoy it as well. I think this is a wonderful way to introduce children to art and letters.

I really appreciate that all the artwork is cited in the back of the book. My son doesn't care about that now, but I do! What I love MOST about this book is that the four paintings featured for each letter are so very different. It enhances a child's imagination and abstract thought. This is a favorite in our collection.

I also highly recommend the other two books in this series, "Museum 123" and "Museum Shapes."

this is our first alphabet book. my 16-month-old loves to identify the objects in the paintings. it's a beautiful book. since it really is good for kids younger than the suggested 4-year-old range, i left off half a star b/c it would be ideal if it were a board book.

My daughter is 20 months old, and I realized last month that I didn't have a good ABC book with big large letters, I'm also a fan of art and the opportunity to expose her to different styles of artwork.

This book is just about perfect. When you read this book, one whole page is dedicated to the letter e.g. "A is for Apple " and then the opposite page features 4 different depictions of apples. It's uncluttered and I think it helps expand their minds.

The only reason I don't give this 5 stars is that I personally disagree about the choices of words/artwork associated with some of the letters... specifically:

M is for Monster... with somewhat intimidating depictions of monsters
V is for Vegetable and I just think that the artwork of vegetables they chose could have been more recognizable there was an onion, some peas and then it looked like two images of cabbage or lettuce.

All in all, my daughter really likes this book, and I really like the layout and the ability to teach her each letter & expose her to art.

My grandchildren began enjoying this book well before their first birthdays and loved them, almost always wanting to have them "read." The book is beautifully produced and introduces each letter with four works of art from the Met collection that exemplify the letter. "B," for example, is "boat" and the four art works are from different periods and styles but all have recognizable "boats" in them. I think that we "are what we see" and giving children such beautiful images as part of their mindscapes from early on is a wonderful gift. This book and its companions, Met shapes, colors, and numbers (which follow the same format but aren't quite as compelling as the letters) have been my baby gifts of choice for some time now.

This book is a great book for kids to learn their ABC's and to begin art appreciation. Each letter has different pictures to go with it representing a word that starts with the letter of the the alphabet. There is a wide varitey of pictures in the book. Great book for young kids.