Children's Book of Art: An Introduction to the World's Most Amazing Paintings and Sculptures

by Deborah Lock

This engaging guide takes children on an international tour of the world's greatest art, from the first daubs of paint in prehistoric caves to today's performance art. It includes all of the important art movements, from Renaissance to Rococo, as well as the great painters from all these eras. However, the approach is to look at art as an international exchange of ideas, not a straight history of western art. The book includes art from all countries, from aboriginal art to totem poles.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Childrens, History, Education, Art History, Picture Books

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Caterina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively, engaging introduction to primarily European art history with some smatterings of non-Western art — despite its subtitle promising “the world’s most amazing paintings and sculptures.” An alluringly illustrated, longer, larger-format DK book for older children and teens. Its initially confusing division into Early Art, Modern Art, and Sculpture works well. A great book for what it covers, but because it does not live up to its promise of world art coverage, I couldn’t give it five stars.

Where the book works best is in the way it presents the art, in visually fabulous two-page spreads offering four alternating ways to view art history:

• Art Style — often associated with a time period or culture
Examples: Dreamtime Art (Australian Aboriginal), Renaissance (European), African Sculpture;
• Individual Artist Profiles Examples: Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Damien Hirst;
• Gallery — collections of art on a theme, from various times and cultures
Examples: Children in art, Animals in art, War in art, Work in art;
• How Did They Do That?
Examples: How to make mosaics, How to paint with pastels, How to make Land Art.

The “How Did They Do That” pages were great — not only breaking out materials and techniques, but offering supplemental timelines of significant works and/or vignettes of individual artists. I wish more art books (for adults) treated art this way, as something crafted, made by workers using the earth’s resources, not just something ethereal that exists solely in idea-land. It’s also a great resource for class projects.

Where this book falls short: For a book that claims to be “An introduction to the world’s most amazing paintings and sculptures,” the coverage is too narrow. World-wide coverage is best in the Prehistoric and Sculpture sections. But when it comes to Individual Artist profiles, not so much. Only five of 22 profiles feature non-European artists. Only one is of non-European heritage. Not a single profile features a women artist. Some of this lack is made up for in the “Style,” “Gallery,” and “How to…” sections — for example, How to Paint in Pastels features Mary Cassatt — but the implicit message should concern a teacher or parent.

As for coverage of the world’s art in the Style and Gallery sections — well, not really. The history of Chinese painting is pretty much confined to a single two-page spread, and the art history of India, Japan, and Persia are almost absent. Latin American art shows in a handful of small scattered images under various themes. African-diaspora (such as African-American) contemporary art is pretty much absent. There’s almost no coverage of Pre-Colombian art from Mexico, Central, or South America. The book begins promisingly with cave art from Europe, Africa, and America, but introduces the cave artists as “men” rather than “artists." What is one to make of all this, in a book published in 2009?

This is such a fantastic book for what it covers. But I’m just hoping there’s something out there that really does cover world art for children. Please, DK, especially now that you appear to have moved your headquarters to Delhi, you must do better in your next edition; it’s your responsibility because your books are some of the best teaching resources available.

[Ayda · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب خوبی بود با طراحی صفحه‌ی بسیار زیبا. برای منی که اطلاعات هنریم کمه، کتاب مناسبی بود

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, in a word "Brilliant!"

I have just finished reading this Children's Book of Art (Dk) and I have to say I'm very impressed. DK have really outdone themselves here. The information is set out in the usual clear, easy to understand format that we all know and love, however on this occasion they have excelled at presenting a concise reference book about Art especially for children, (although I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed, the book myself).

The book is a non-fictonal, easy read and the painters, paintings and sculptures they have included will be quite familiar, along with a few lesser or unknown Artist's, all with interesting facts and opening questions about the whole process of Art and the questions of what Art really is.

The Paintings and Sculptures featured are displayed in a Large Format on full pages, this allows children to explore the details of some of the Artwork almost as good as seeing them in person,(well not quite but still very good) quite a few have notations indicating the size of the Artwork, which is really helpful in gaining perspective.

I highly recommend this DK Children's Book of Art for any child's home collection, whether as a home school resource or an interest book to explore the world of Art.

[Aida · Rating 4 out of 5]

۴/۵ شاید هم ۴/۷ نمره من باشه
کتاب خیلی خوبیه برای کسایی که عشق هنر هستن مخصوصا اگه خودآموز باشید براتون مثل یک کتاب مقدس میمونه🤲🏻😂
خیلی برای آموزش های اولیه و دنیای هنر خوبه ولی آموزش اولیه نه خیلی حرفه ای.
عکس ها برای من خیلی جالب بود مخصوصا اطلاعاتی که از اونها به من میداد ولی به نظرم میتونستن چیدمان بهتری داشته باشن. یکی هم غلط های ترجمه وجود داشت که وقتی سرچ میکردین اسم یک تابلوی نقاشی رو متوجه میشدین به همین دلیل ازش نمره کم کردم.
(این یک ضعف خیلی بزرگ و بدی که اسم تابلو یا هنرمند رو اشتباه در یک کتاب مخصوص هنر بنویسید)

[Hedie · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب بیشتر برای آشنا شدن دنیای هنر و آثار هنری از بدو وجود انسان تا به الان اون‌هم به صورت کاملا مختصر و کوتاهه. صفحه آرایی و چیدمان نوشته و عکس اصلا برام جالب و دوست‌داشتنی نبود و همین باعث می‌شد دیر به دیر سمت این کتاب بیام، ولی در کل اطلاعات مفیدی رو به مخاطب انتقال میداد.
اگه می‌خواید یه اطلاعات جزئیی از دنیای هنر و مجسمه‌سازی داشته باشید خوندنش رو بهتون توصیه می‌کنم.

[Craigneggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of artists are represented in this book for kids (and adults looking into what the art world entails)

[Alfi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for my art history exam, my lecture recommend this book. And this book is interesting for beginner art student like me.

[Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because it tells you paintings that artists made and my favorite thing is The little dancer made by:Edgar Degas . And the sunflowers painted by:Vincent Van Gogh,the Japanese bridge painted by:Claude Monet,and Mona Lisa painted by:Leonardo Da Vinci. I learned that art isn’t just for art lovers and it’s not just an image. And how old are these paintings?Actually they’re more than 1’000 years old!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was huge, so it was a bit hard to hold onto to read but I could see a kid/teen laying on the floor or bed reading it.

It had a lot of different artist and interesting information about different styles of painting and sculptures. I enjoyed it.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to my K-2nd grade art camp. It was helpful in introducing new art concepts and artist to my students. They continually went back to it as a resource during our two week camp.

[B Casteau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun intro to art. It was also a pleasure to see what caught my daughter's eyes.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book so much. It is so pretty and full of great history of various art forms and artists from around the world. I've always wanted to own it, but it is so hard to find for a decent price!

[Amber Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been great for LKS2 to introduce them to artists in history. It is very child friendly, language wise but it also gives very interesting an relevant content about each artist.

[Tanu Goel Srivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel that it’s a must read book for all children because the book explains such tough concepts of art in a very very easy way.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nice book that shows a big part of art history. The only down side is that it shows David, a nude statue, so I didn’t feel comfortable leaving it on the library shelf at my work.

[Erika Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. I was inspired and enjoyed this book very much. DK books are always educational, interesting, packed with information, and make you want to learn more.

[和泉美優 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book embarks readers on a journey throughout the history of art, spanning from the Stone Age, to our modern period. Teaching children about the different art movements, and some of the techniques, this book is surely one that you must read if you're interested in art!

I started reading this book, because the text was easy and I didn't have much time, so I thought that there wouldn't be much that I would learn and it would just be a review. But I was wrong. It actually did give me some information about the techniques used by artist. The only problem was that there wasn't much information about watercolour, which I'm fond of. I finished this book because I wasn't familiar with the Modern Art movement, so I wanted to read about (I wasn't too interested-I'm a traditionalist). This book is divided into three sections: Early Art, Modern Art and Sculpture.

I would recommend this book to Helen because it is a good book on art, and I think that she'd like to learn about the different techniques in this book. The text easy so she'll no doubt finish it quickly. It has some information on Picasso, whom Helen is interested in.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed reading this book because I did not get a formal art education in school and it introduced me to many artists new to me and the history behind some art forms. I know this new knowledge will help me explain works and artists to my daughter as we explore art together. I recommend this book to any interest in beginning to learn a bit more about art.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a good book and I liked the why don't you try ideas. It takes you through art history and tells you about the most popular paintings. I also like the how to do it step by step instructions to do different types of art. I think that it was very interesting children's art book.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely survey of art for kids, including traditional forms from around the world, as well as the canon of Western tradition. Also lots of great info on pigments and perspective and other aspects of the craft. It inspired the KitKatPandaBatWolf to draw a soup can and a monster.

[Sam Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

DK does it again! This book is honestly the next best thing to taking your kid to the Louevre, then the Met, then Musee D'orsay, then the Tate Modern, etc., etc.

[Christine Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juv Nonfiction 709 Chi

[Lynnette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artists, techniques, different types of media, and big pictures make this a great book! There is some nudity and the authors used b.c.e and a.c.e dating.

[Wsclai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though it is intended for children, I like it equally. It is a brief history of art and it introduces readers to different art moments, artists and media in a graphic way.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introductory book to different movements and art media for children. I might use it with my students as supplemental reading.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit disjointed at times and not entirely logical pacing, but very attractive and interesting.