In the Garden with Van Gogh

by Julie Merberg, Suzanne Bober

With a narrative that will entertain art lovers of all ages, this new board book is a fun way to introduce young children to fine art. The sleepy trees, golden haystacks, and juicy fruits of In the Garden with Van Gogh will delight little ones. Playful rhyming texts accompany the artists timeless paintings in this little masterpiece.

Genres: Art, Childrens, Picture Books, Poetry, Art History, History, Plants

22 pages, Board Book

First published March 1, 2002

Reviews

[Abram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendid, very good job thing all the pictures together.

[Feralucce Savage · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully illustrated with reproductions of some of Van Gogh's most iconic pieces. The narrative poem that goes along with it is somewhat clunky and awkward, with forced rhymes and uneven meter. Overall, it makes a nice introduction to his work.

[E & E’s Mama · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love these art board books by Julie Marberg and Suzanne Bober. Our favorites are the Degas and Monet, but we enjoyed this one as well, especially since Elliot recognizes several of the paintings from another favorite book about Van Gogh’s art: Katie and the Starry Night.

*library book

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Illustrations are 90% reproductions of his paintings, so go to them. I am appalled by the nerve of the author to say this about *Starry Night* - "Time for sleep, in the quiet light of a starry night." Um, quiet, nope. He painted it while at asylum for mental illness; it expresses turmoil.

[Danielle Carstairs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The colors of the flowers are wrong. They are not “white, purple, and red”; they are literally white, yellow, and blue. I’m sorry but that was very distracting to me. 5 stars for the Van Gogh art but three stars for the poem

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that they make these types of board books...as in subject matter. This one is done very well.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great way to introduce children to some famous art.

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous pix

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

20 month old and I really enjoyed this one!

[Maeve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich text describes a farming story based on 10 pieces of artwork by Van Gogh.

[Aubrie Hurd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the intro to classic Van Gogh paintings to children. I will be looking for the other ones in this series.

[Forrest Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the paintings!

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a few of the books in the series.

On the plus side, I really like the concept - picture books introducing famous artists to young children. What could be cooler than that?

Unfortunately, I don't like the writing that much. Prose would be perfectly suited for these pictures, but instead the author keeps trying to write it in rhyme, and it falls very flat. The whole thing seems trite, and a lot of the rhymes and meter end up sounding forced.

I'd still be buying the books, despite this, because I like the idea so much, except we've run into a new snag - they're not very well put together. By which I mean that all of the books we have in this series started to fall apart within a year, a year and a half of their purchase. They're board books, and the nieces are actually too old to "need" board books - they're not rough on the books at all. This should not be happening. The shoddy construction *will* keep me from buying more books, where awkward text wouldn't.

If these books ever get printed in paperback, or maybe as a hardcover compilation, I'll probably buy them. But I cannot recommend that anybody buy the board books.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one book in a series that introduces children to the great art masters. It shows a few pieces (around 10) from the artist and pairs it with rhyming phrases. These books were fun to read and, obviously, great to look at. They come in board book form and are on the smaller side so they are great for little hands, but even my older children loved looking through them.

One semi-negative comment I have is that some of the phrases that accompany each painting tell the reader too much which doesn't let the reader come up with their own meaning and interpretation of the painting. This doesn't happen with each painting or in every book. Some of the phrases are more ambiguous. I guess the easy remedy for this would be to not read the text to your child and just ask questions and have discussions about each picture.

Overall, this is a great series and I highly recommend them.

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's nice to find a board book that introduces higher culture to very young children. This one presents ten of Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings (Sunflowers, Irises, Haystacks in Provence, Olive Grove, The Sower, The Reaper (After Millet), First Steps (After Millet), Women Picking Olives, The Siesta, and The Starry Night) along with simple, rhyming text. This could be a great addition to a toddler's library, but the text is very choppy, bringing the ideas in the paintings together very loosely. It's a good "read-alone" for preverbal toddlers, but is annoying for adults to read aloud. It might have been better to simply introduce the paintings by name and leave it at that.

[Rochelle Sondae · Rating 3 out of 5]

The images are Van Gogh so they aren't really the best for newborns however I really like the idea of immersing children with as much variety as possible and grounding them with "the classics" so I often recommend this and other titles in the series for baby showers. I also personally abhor the idea that every child must have Goodnight Moon so I'm always looking for alternatives. The value in this series is, of course, the artwork and secondly the catchy rhymes that accompany the masters. Once the child is older there in a list in the back with the name of each piece.

[Jenni Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This board book and others in set, is wonderful for reading to toddlers and preschoolers. It has catchy, rhythmic verse, along with pictures of great works of art. I tracked down and bought the whole set. We've all learned to recognize art that we weren't familiar with before. Highly recommended.

[Elizabeth Mcdonough · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a different Van Gogh painting on each page. Along with a painting is a rhyming text that uses imagery to describe the paintings. This book is great because it uses famous paintings to help develop a knowledge of imagery.The back of the book also gives information on each of the paintings in the book (when it was done, the title, where it is located now- museum).

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of board books has lyrical, rhyming text that's not bouncy or goofy, but leads the reader through a series of paintings by a famous artist. Four of the titles are also available as a boxed set--a great present for a first birthday!

[Aletheia Ubben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how the text on each page explained something about the picture, which encourages further reflection and observation. (Aletheia's review: "So you can open and close the cover as many times as you want, and the words are still there? Interesting...")

[Yazir Paredes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little book about Van Gogh complemented with phrases. My 5 year old daughter just loved it. I had shower some paintings of Van Gogh a few months before and when she saw the book she clearly remembered them and was impressed by other paintings in the book. Great to promote creativity.

[Vincent]

one of my first reads

[Artlab]

Introduction to Van Gogh's work for young children.

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

there is a whole series of board books with paintings and my 3 year old loves the all. this is the 3rd or 4th time she has gotten the van gogh one from the library.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites in the series. There is more of a common theme amongst Van Gogg's paintings. The accompanying text touches young colors, counting and identifying flowers.

[Larissa Langsather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average good board book for babies...

[Hope L. Justice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is really about showcasing the topics of romanticism. It would have been wonderful if the plot hadn't tried so hard to make a tight wrapped neatly nursery poem. It felt really disjointed.

[Shannon Nicole Wilkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect introduction for my little one, to my favorite artist . . . Van Gogh.