Customer Reviews

Visiting the Art Museum (Picture Puffin Books)

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This is an EXCELLENT book for children as well as parents. It covers artwork from New Guinea to Mexico, artists such as Renoir, Cassatt, Rousseau, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Pollack, Picasso and Warhol, silver items by Paul Revere and various sculptures. Works from Primitive to Twentieth Century. A must-have book for parents who wish to share their enthusiasm, and prepare their children for a visit to the art museum.

The idea for this book is cute. In the story a family decides to visit the art museum (presumably for the first time) and the book follows their visit through the museum with complaints and good times. Even though there are complaints in the beginning, everyone is glad they visited the museum in the end. The book is very low on actual content. The writing is done through the bubbles of each person speaking. There is no real information about the art or a museum and how to visit one. Since I have worked for art museums most of my life, I would have like to see something with more helpful information or some educational content along with the fun conversation between the family members otherwise when you have read it once, there is no reason to ever pick it up again.

Following a family on their first trip to the art museum (Son: "I can't go. "Dinosaurs and Dragons" is on! Dad: "You're going." Sound familiar?) this book takes the reader on a relatable, humorous field trip. The art is introduced by degrees, and in the end, everyone is nearly ecstatic that they went. Beginning with primitive art, the reader follow the family through Egyptian artifacts, Greek statues ("Wow! A nude Frisbee player.), European Arms and Armor, the Renaissance, Impressionism, up through Andy Warhol. Of particular interest to parents and educators, the "More About the Art" section in the back gives descriptions and brief explanations of each of the specific pieces of art depicted in the book, and offers tips for enjoying an art museum.

Marc Brown's soft, colored-pencil and watercolor illustrations are carefully, thoughtfully drawn. Each page features at least one real, specific piece of art which has either been rendered in illustration with careful attention to detail, or, if the publisher was able to acquire printing rights (a sticky wicket in the case of famous art), they have been printed as photographs within the illustration. For example, in the Renaissance Gallery, a photograph of the actual painting "The Battle of San Romano" by Paolo di Dono is shown, but a rendering based on the painting "Saint George and the Dragon" by Raphael is used.

This book is in no way a comprehensive art study, nor was it intended to be: thirty-two pages is not a lot of space to cover an entire art museum, but if the goal is to educate children and (hopefully) inspire them to go to a real art museum, then Visiting the Museum succeeds admirably on both counts.

I grew up looking at the pictures in (and later reading) this book. I loved it so much, and I still think about it at age 20! Definitely got me very interested in art and I'm still an artist today!