Margaret Hyde
Margaret Hyde has a series of board books about art for kids that feature such artists as Mary Cassatt, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Renoir, and Vincent Van Gogh. Don’t forget that young babies respond to bright colors and pictures, and these board books are beautiful to look at.
E.L. Konigsburg
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg is a Newberry Award-winning book about a brother and sister who run away from home and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and are trying to unravel a mystery that may or may not involve Michelangelo. This book was first published in 1967 and is perhaps a little dated in that it includes scenes that take place in an automat, a defunct kind of restaurant that dispensed food from machines. But Mixed Up Files is still fresh and fun and about curiosity and the power of a good mystery.
Laurence Anholt
Laurence Anholt has a series of books about artists for children with stories that incorporate children into the artists’ lives. Anholt has many titles that include: Leonardo and the Flying Boy, The Magical Garden of Claude Monet, Camille and the Sunflowers, and Katie Meets the Impressionists. These books have a nice marriage of fiction versus non-fiction that may make the experience of learning about a famous artist more personal for children and less textbook-ish.
Blue Balliett
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett is also a mystery with terrific illustrations by Brett Helquist. With puzzles, patterns and artful clues a pair of kids named Petra and Calder team together to solve a mystery that has even baffled the FBI and involves the great Dutch artist Jan Vermeer. You can also check out the sequel to Chasing Vermer, entitled The Wright 3 with suitable Mission-style typography and another artful mystery, this time more architectural. Blue Balliett has also written The Calder Game, another mystery that centers around the Calder character and the sculptor and artist Alexander Calder.
Mike Venezia
For older kids, Mike Venezia has a fantastic series of books which are titled, Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists and includes profiles of Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Georgia O’Keefe, Marc Chagall, Georges Seurat, Jackson Pollack, Paul Cezanne and Paul Klee.
Take the time and cash to buy a book that introduces your child to the rich world of art history.
