Teaching Art with Books Kids Love: Art Elements, Appreciation, and Design with Award-Winning Books

I like the IDEA of this book.It pretty much goes like this: Read a colorful, exciting book to your students. Discuss and observe an element of art that is shown in the illustrations of the book. Then recreate that element with an art project.It sounds great, and I think it IS great. Except I feel like the way the information is presented is complicated and the format is confusing. For example, the titles of the books are italicized amid an entire page of information. So if you are trying to quickly figure out which book to use for the next art concept, you have a difficulty because you may need to scan 3-4 pages of text to find the italicized title of the book. I wish the titles of the books were italicized AND bolded.I also wish the book was laid out more intuitively. Perhaps with one or two books listed at the very outset of the chapter, then a SMALL discussion about the art concept, and then a suggested art project to b do. Instead, It is heavy on the explanation of the art concept, a small blurb about the book and where the concept is found, and then 3-4 projects incorporating that artistic method, some with other books, then a bit more about the artistic method... It seems jumbled to me, and can be overwhelming trying to use it if you are a novice with art, or are wanting to teach a young child.

The concept of this book is excellent and the projects are simple with materials we generally have at home so that is a plus. There is zero wrong with the book but I wish they would do a revised version with new books and artwork examples!

This book is a step towards a long term goal for me as a teacher now working in home with a 3yr old especially on Montessori lessonsI’ve been struggling as a non artist to develop some art lessons and I love teaching writing to the early yearsBut this book will be of interest to any age group teacher trying to develop art from a curriculumThe lessons are good and can be expanded since she gives a good framework to developI have ordered the story books from the library although she explains you don’t have to use them...more for your own understandingI’m hoping this book and the one by Olshansky on language and pictures will help me take my little 3yr old on a new journeyThe book is very well laid out and worth the costI’ve been a teacher since 1982 and never found such a clear book to introduce art for a non specialist

This book is a great resource for learning how art is put together as well as experiencing different types of 2-dimentional art. This book is an easy read for the educator. Each chapter has projects for helping children understand the concept as well as recommendations for children books that put the art idea into action.The book begins with the elements of art such as line, shapes, texture and so on, this is followed by the principles of art like harmony, balance, movement ... and finally to artistic styles such as realism, impressionism, etc.Example: Chapter 8, Variety and Contrastexplains why artists use variety and contrast and what methods they use, references to fine art and children's literature are given, apply technique by drawing flies in different sizes, facing different ways and with different patternsNote: You do not need the reference books to use this book, it is only additional help. We did not use it and enjoyed the book.

This is my third copy of this book! It is one of the best at teaching the elements of art to children and adults, quite frankly! I have been using it to refresh my memory and with our grandsons! It is must have book for teachers!

I loved that this book taught broad concepts such as perspective, space, color, hue, etc. The projects were reasonably open-ended art projects, rather than the usual "follow the steps to make a craft identical to your classmates." Some of the literature selections were a bit too heavy for my youngest students, or at least not without more discussion time allotted, but they were very good and meaningful books overall. Always preview the literature selection to see whether it will work for you, but they're all classics and many have some history or science interwoven in them as well.

Great resource to connect children's literature with art projects -- would have preferred author put a cross reference chart with books used with corresponding page number that the are used in an art lesson to make it easier to use the children's books. If you have a book you want to use, you have to look through all the lessons to see if it is used in a lesson. Time consuming.

Perfect

Good art activities with a lit connection. Books referenced are award winning so most books are readily available. You need to have the book to do the activity properly.

good guidelines for teaching art.