Anne Guery and Olivier Dussutour have cleverly selected 26 paintings by well-known and accomplished artists such as Picasso, Van Gough and Matisse. My understanding is that author and teacher, Anne Guery, developed this book with her primary school students.
Children and their parents could possibly spend hours studying the paintings in this book, as they search for a letter of the alphabet that is discretely hiding in each painting.
Unknowingly, children are going to learn a lot about art while reading this book. Without any formal instruction, children will unknowingly begin to learn about the artistic elements of colour, line, shape and space.
There is no need to fear if, like me, you have very little art knowledge. Anne and Olivier have included art notes at the back of the book. These notes include details about the paintings such as title, artist and date. Other discussion points and questions are also included about style of each painting and features to look out for.
I would recommend this book to children that are already familiar with the letters of the alphabet. This book would assist in consolidating their ability to recognise letters. However, there is nothing stopping parents from sharing this book with younger children as the answers can be found at the end of the book. Younger children would surely be fascinated with the colours and images in each painting. Rather than searching for letters parents may ask their younger children to search for other familiar objects in the paintings.
As I said at the beginning of this review, ingenious. This is much more than an alphabet book.
- this review by Jackie Small of My Little Bookcase
Title: Alphab’art
Authors: Anne Guery and Olivier Dussutour
Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, $29.95 RRP
Publication Date: July 2009
ISBN: 9781847800138
Format: Hardcover
For ages: 5+
Type: Picture Book