For Elementary students

Print resources > What is an artist? | Appreciating Art | Learn About Artists | Careers in Art | Books illustrated (and written) by visual artists | Just for fun fiction

I am an artist
Pat Lowery Collins, Robin Brickman (Illustrator)
Reprint edition 1994
Millbrook Press
ISBN: 156294729X
Paperback - 32 pages
Ages 4-8

From the author, Pat Lowery Collins , September 27, 1997: My premise is that art is about process as much as product. From comments made to me at book signings, it appears that I achieved what I set out to do - to show in a simple, poetic way that making art is concerned as much with process as with product. We are all creative beings and capable of entering into the creative process on many levels. The beautiful illustrations by Robin Brickman have an unfinished quality to support the thesis of the book.

Click: A Book About Cameras and Taking Pictures
Gail Gibbons
1997
Little Brown & Co
ISBN: 0316309761
32 pages
Ages 4-8

From Booklist: This is a simple how-to book on taking photographs. It includes the basic parts of a camera, how to load the film, how to take good pictures indoors and outdoors, what happens inside the camera, and what happens at the photo developer's shop. The last pages offer a quick history of photography and a few "Fun Photo Facts."

The Art of Shapes: For Children and Adults
Margaret Steele, Cindy Estes
1997
Moca Store
ISBN: 0914357506
Board book - 24 pages

The Art of Colors: For Children and Adults
Margaret Steele, Cindy Estes
2000
Moca Store
ISBN: 0914357549
Board book - 24 pages

Top of page

Visiting The Art Museum
Laurene Brown
1992
E P Dutton
ISBN: 0140548203
Paperback
Ages 4-8

As a family wanders through an art museum, they see examples of various art styles from ancient through twentieth-century pop art.

Discover Great Paintings - A Child's Book of Art
Lucy Micklethwait
1999
DK Publishing/Firefly Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1552094103
32 pages
Ages 6-9

Thirteen famous Western paintings - ranging from Boticell's Primavera to David Hockey's Self-Portrait with Blue Guitar are included in this guide to investigating paintings . Certain elements of the content are explained and a series of questions prompts the child the look closely at each work. A small representation of each painting is shown next to an average 5-year-old child, which gives the reader an accurate depiction of its actual size.

Looking at Pictures: An Introduction to Art for Young People
Joy Richardson, Illustrator: Charlotte Voake
1997
Harry N Abrams
ISBN: 0810942526
Hardcover - 80 pages
Ages 9-12

Richardson encourages children to appreciate art on their own terms in Looking at Pictures. Against a backdrop of the National Gallery in London using some of the world's most famous Western paintings, by da Vinci, Picasso and Renoir, this colourful collection stimulates an interest in both artwork and the artists themselves.

A First Book Of Canadian Art
Richard Rhodes
2001
ISBN: 1894379217
Published by Owl Books

Laying a foundation of key names and images, this splendid tour of Canadian art begins with the ancient petroglyphs, totem poles and inuksuit of Canada's indigenous peoples. It moves through giants of Canadian art, from Paul Kane, Cornelius Kreighoff, Tom Thompson and Emily Carr to Jack Chambers, Alex Colville, Bill Reid and Michael Snow, and on to leading-edge contemporary artists, including Jana Sterbak, Ian Carr-Harris and Jane Ash Poitras, as well as recent trends in photography and video art. This richly varied journey takes the reader through hundreds of years of artistic expression across Canada.

Museum ABC
Metropolitan Museum of Art
2002
Little Brown, USA
ISBN: 0316071706
60 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Images fine and funky accompany each letter of the alphabet in three noteworthy offerings. Museum ABC from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, announces "A is for Apple" while, opposite, a full-color spread divided into quadrants presents the evidence with details from Roy Lichtenstein's Red Apple, a detail from Paul Cezanne's Apples and two other works from the museum's collection. "N" features the noses of Giorgio de Chirico (a detail from his Self-Portrait) and Nefertari Kneeling in Adoration, a detail from the subject's Egyptian tomb, among others. Back matter provides further information about each artwork. All ages.

A is for Artist: A Getty Museum Alphabet
J Paul Getty Museum
1997
ISBN: 0892363770
64 pages
Ages 4-8

Eight Hands Round: A Patchwork Alphabet
Ann Whitford Paul, Jeanette Winter
1996
HCP / Juvenile B B
ISBN: 0064434648
32 pages

No One Saw...Ordinary Things Through the Eyes of an Artist
Bob Raczka
2002
Millbrook Press
ISBN: 0761316485
Paperback - 32 pages
Ages 4-8

Illustrated with famous twentieth-century works by such artists as Georgia O'Keefe, Rene Magritte, and Grant Wood, this singsong poem gets to the heart of what artists do: create unique perspectives of the world. Next to each masterpiece, a line from the book's poem invites children to look closely at the artist's version of everyday images in the painting: "No one saw stars like Vincent van Gogh"; "No one saw people like Joan Miro." With a few exceptions, the reproductions are clear, and the lines scan well. The spare design and minimal words put the emphasis on the art, offering children a chance to enjoy and become familiar with the images, without didactic text. Best, though, is the inspiring conclusion, reminding children that they, too, have unique ideas to share: "Artists express their own point of view. And nobody sees the world like you." Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association.

What makes a...?
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Richard Muhlberger
1994-2002
Viking Books
Hardcover - 48 pages
Ages 9-12

• What Makes a Van Gogh a Van Gogh?
  ISBN: 0670035734
• What Makes a Degas a Degas?
  ISBN: 0670035718
• What Makes a Rembrandt a Rembrandt?
  ISBN: 0670035726
• What Makes a Bruegel a Bruegel?
  ISBN: 0670852031
• What Makes a Cassatt a Cassatt?
  ISBN 0670857424
• What Makes a Leonardo a Leonardo?
  ISBN: 0670857440
• others include: Picasso, Goya, Monet...

Top of page

Smart About Art series
2001-2002
Grosset & Dunlap
Paperback - 32 pages
Ages 5-9

Written in the voice of a young student and presented in the format of a school report, the books recount events in each artist's life and offer insight into his work, using charming childlike drawings and reproductions of the artist's paintings in scrapbook-style layouts to illustrate both the stories and the artistic explanations. The result is a successful blend of fact and humor that makes sophisticated concepts completely accessible and even entertaining.- Booklist

• Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors
  Jane O'Connor, Jessie Hartland
  ISBN: 044842519X

• Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars
  Joan Holub, Brad Bucks
  ISBN: 0448425211

• Edgar Degas: Paintings That Dance
  Maryann Cocca-Leffler
  ISBN: 0448425203

• Claude Monet: Sunshine and Waterlilies
  True Kelley
  ISBN: 044842522X

Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series
Mike Venezia - Author, Illustrator
1991-2000
Children's Press - Grolier Publishing
Ages 6-9

Titles available:

Adventures in Art series
Prestel
32pages
Ages 9-12

• Dreaming Pictures: Paul Klee
  Jurgen Von Schemm, Paul Klee
  1997
  ISBN: 3791318756
  
• Marc Chagall: What Colour is Paradise?
  Elisabeth Lemke, Thomas David, Marc Chagall
  2000
  ISBN: 3791323938
• The Blue Rider: The Yellow Cow Sees the World in Blue
  Doris Kutschbach, Andrea P. A. Belloli
  1997
  ISBN: 379131811X
• Can You Spot the Leopard?: African Masks
  Christine Stelzig
  1997
  ISBN: 3791318748
• Visiting Vincent Van Gogh
  Caroline Breunesse
  1997
  ISBN: 3791318764

Lives of the Artists : Masterpieces, Messes (And What the Neighbors Thought)
Kathleen Krull, Kathryn Hewitt (Illustrator)
1995
Harcourt Brace
ISBN: 0152001034
96 pages
Ages 9-12

From Horn Books: Informative short biographies that focus on the subjects' personal lives and eccentricities rather than chronologies of their masterpieces. A few notes on major artworks follow each biography. Among the 19 artists discussed are Leonardo, Bruegel, Cassatt, Van Gogh, Picasso, O'Keefe, Dali, Noguchi, Rivera, Kahlo, and Warhol. Each chapter begins with one of Hewitt's distinctive portrait paintings, handsome caricatures of the artists and a few significant or distinctive objects indicating their interests and individual traits.

The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson: An Introduction
Anne Newlands
1995
ISBN: 1895565537
Firefly Books
66 pages

Anne Newlands explores the ambitions and visions of this unique cast of characters, capturing the cultural and historical realities of their time and bringing to life their artistic response to the Canadian wilderness. Writing with insight and enthusiasm, Newlands offers us an informative introduction to the lives and work of the artists who have come to symbolize the Canadian spirit.

Meet the Group of Seven
David Wistow, Kelly McKinley
The Art Gallery of Ontario
1999
Kids Can Press
ISBN: 1550744941
48 pages
Ages 8+

Not your average reference -this dynamic guide explains how the famous group formed, how and where they painted, their influence on Canadian art, as well as information on the value of the works and the restoration process. In addition to full colour representations of their paintings, selected commerial work and photographs of the artists in action are included.

Images of Nature - Canadian Poets and the Group of Seven
David Booth
1995
Kids Can Press
ISBN: 1550742728

The poetry of Earle Birney, Raymond Souster, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood and others is juxtaposed with paintings of the Group of Seven artists who taught us that "art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people."

Emily Carr - An Introduction to Her Life and Art
Anne Newlands
1996
Firefly Books
ISBN: 1552090450
64 pages
Ages 9+
Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis
Jo Ellen Bogart
2002
Tundra Books
ISBN: 0887765688
32 pages
Ages 9-12

Maud Lewis was born into a loving Nova Scotia family who accepted her physical limitations. When her parents died and she was forced to find her own way in the world, she married and set up a modest household in a small cabin. Despite the hardships she faced, she was able to find joy in her life, a joy that she expressed through her art. She painted canvases of animals, children, and her surroundings. Her art spilled over into everything from dust pans to the walls of her house.

Frida
Jonah Winter, Ana Juan
2002
Scholastic
ISBN: 0590203207
32 pages

Jonah Winter and illustrator Ana Juan offer an exquisite and playful glimpse into the artist's life and work. Filled with the folk art icons of Frida Kahlo's Mexican culture depicted with acrylics and wax on paper--the book describes, in short streams of text, the feisty, irreverent, fierce nature of the artist.

Diego
Jonah Winter, Jeanette Winter
1994
Dragonfly Books
ISBN: 067985617X
40 pages Rep/English & Spanish edition

A bilingual life of the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, weighted toward his early life (he was a poor scholar whose sympathetic parents provided plenty of artistic materials and sent him to art school quite young) and his pride in his heritage. Winter's small, bordered paintings, in rich, intense colors, nicely evoke folk motifs and other themes in Rivera's work.

M y Name is Georgia: A Portrait
by Jeanette Winter
2001
Harcourt
ISBN: 015201649X
Hardcover - 48 pages
Ages 9-12

Top of page

What Do Illustrators Do?
Eileen Christelow
1999
Clarion Books
ISBN: 0395902304
Hardcover - 40 pages
Ages 4-8

From Kirkus reviews: Christelow takes readers behind the scenes to watch two (fictional) artists create picture-book editions of Jack and the Beanstalk. Between the first flash of inspiration and celebratory ice cream cones at the end, both illustrators sketch dummies; make decisions about character, perspective, point-of- view, and composition; experiment with different media; and entertain tactful suggestions from editors and designers. Meanwhile, each takes the story in a different direction, one sticking to tradition, the other switching to an all-female cast. Around and within the cartoon panels, pets and a child add explanatory comments to the captions.

Talking With Artists series
Pat Cummings (Editor)
Simon & Schuster (Juv)
Ages 9-12

Volume One presents the idea of illustration as a profession; Volume Two touts the value both of practicing old techniques and trying new ones; Volume Three introduces the concept of illustration as a means of communication.

• Talking with Artists - Volume 1: Conversations With Victoria Chess, Pat Cummings, Leo and Diane Dillon, Richard Egielski, Lois Ehlert, Lisa Campbell Ernst, Tom
  1992
  ISBN: 0027242455
• Talking with Artists -Volume 2: Conversations with Thomas B. Allen, Mary Jane Begin, Floyd Cooper, Julie Downing, Denise Fleming, Sheila Hamanaka, Kevin Henkes, William Joyce, Maira Kalman, Deborah Nourse Lattimore, Brian Pinkney, Vera B. Williams and David Wisniewski
  1995
  ISBN: 0689803109
• Talking with Artists - Volume 3:Conversations with Peter Catalanotto, Raul Colon, Lisa Desimini, Jane Dyer, Kevin Hawkes, G. Brian Karas, Betsy Lewin, Ted Lewin, Keiko Narahashi, Elise Primavera, Anna Rich, Peter Sis and Paul O. Zelinsky
  1999
  ISBN: 0395891329

Talking to Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold, Linda Freeman (Contributor), Nancy Roucher(Contributor)
1996
Crown Publishing
ISBN: 0517885468

A conversational account of Faith Ringgold's life and work presented in short sections, such as "Introducing Myself," "Growing Up," and "Being an Artist," the author and illustrator comments on her achievements, how she developed her style, and what some of her works mean to her.

Career Ideas for Kids Who Like Art
Diane Lindsey Reeves, Nancy Bond (Illustrator)
1998
Published by Facts on File, Incorporated
ISBN: 081603687X
176 pages
Ages 9-12

Profiles of the following careers: Actor, Animator, Architect, Artist, Chef, Choreographer, Cosmetologist, Development Director, Fashion Designer, Floral Designer, Graphic Designer, Industrial Designer, Interior Designer, Museum Curator, Photojournalist.

Top of page

Life Doesn't Frighten Me
Author: Maya Angelou
Illustrator: Jean-Michel Basquiat
1993
ISBN: 1556702884
32 Pages

A marriage of poetry and art that combines the daring of Basquiat's vision with the courage and strength of Angelou's poem to create a place where every child may experience and celebrate his or her own fearlessness.

Faith Ringgold - Artist, author, illustrator, art professor

Faith Ringgold, born in Harlem in the 1930's, is an artist of international renown best known for her story quilts -- works that combine painting, quilted fabric, and storytelling.

Her first children's book, Tar Beach, was a Caldecott Honor Book, a winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration, a Reading Rainbow featured selection, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book, and the recipient of numerous other honors, including a Parents Choice Gold Award.

• Tar Beach
  1991
  Published by The Crown Publishing Group
  ISBN: 0517580306
  32 Pages

Ringgold recounts the dream adventure of eight-year-old Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who flies above her apartment-building rooftop, the 'tar beach' of the title, looking down on 1939 Harlem. Part autobiographical, part fictional, this allegorical tale sparkles with symbolic and historical references central to African-American culture. The spectacular artwork resonates with color and texture.

• Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
  1995
  ISBN: 0517885433
  32 Pages

Cassie, who flew above New York in Tar Beach, soars into the sky once more. This time, she and her brother Be Be meet a train full of people, and Be Be joins them. But the train departs before Cassie can climb aboard. With Harriet Tubman as her guide, Cassie retraces the steps escaping slaves took on the real Underground Railroad and is finally reunited with her brother at the story's end.

• Dinner At Aunt Connie's House
  1996
  Published by Hyperion
  ISBN: 0786811501
  32 Pages
  

Melody loves the annual family excursion to Aunt Connie's house--everyone gets to go swimming, share a fabulous dinner and see an exhibition of Aunt Connie's most recent art. From their frames on the wall, famous African American women such as Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Zora Neale Hurston tell their stories of their devotion to causes from civil rights to education.

• Invisible Princess
  1998
  Published by The Crown Publishing Group
  ISBN: 0517800241
  

An original African-American fairy tale set during the time of slavery.

Top of page

Art Dog
Thacher Hurd
1996
HCP / Juvenile B B
ISBN: 0060244259
Ages 4-8

Arthur Dog guards famous paintings by Vincent Van Dog and Leonardo Dog Vinci at the Dogopolis Museum of Art by day. By night, he transforms into Art Dog and saves the day when the Mona Whoofa is stolen.

You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum
Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman, Ellery Queen, Robin Preiss Glasser
2001
Dial Books
ISBN: 0803723016
Hardcover - 40 pages
Ages 4-8

Katie series
James Mayhew
Orchard Books (NY)
32 pages
Ages 4-8

• Katie and the Mona Lisa
  1999
  ISBN: 053130177X
  
• Katie Meets the Impressionists
  1999
  ISBN: 0531301516
  
• Katie and the Sunflowers
  James Mayhew
  2002
  ISBN: 053130325X
  

A String of Beads
Margarette S. Reid, Ashley Wolff
2001
Dutton Books ; ISBN: 0525457216
Hardcover - 32 pages
Ages 4-8

Degas and the Little Dancer
Laurence Anholt
1996
Barron's Educational Series
ISBN: 0812065832
32 pages
Ages 4-8

Leonardo and the Flying Boy
Laurence Anholt
2000
Barron's Educational Series
ISBN: 0764152254
32 pages
Ages 4-8

Camille and the Sunflowers: A Story about Vincent Van Gogh
Laurence Anholt
1994
Barron's Educational Series
ISBN: 0812064097
32 pages
Ages 4-8

Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail
Laurence Anholt
1998
Barron's Educational Series
ISBN: 0764150316
32 pages
Ages 4-8

The Art Lesson
by Tomie dePaola
Reprint Edition 2002
PaperStar Book
ISBN: 0698115724
Ages 4-8

From Amazon.com
This is a charming exercise in autobiography (one of several) by the great author-illustrator Tomie dePaola. "Tommy" is consumed with a passion for drawing. Although encouraged by his family, who treat his pictures with respect and decorate their houses and workplaces with them, he encounters misunderstanding and frustration at school. Finally, an art teacher gives him a chance to do his own thing.

The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West
Barbara Brenner, Olivier Dunrea
1999
Houghton Mifflin Company
ISBN: 0395850800
48 pages

Based on the autobiographical writings of colonial artist Benjamin West, this story introduces young Benjamin, who began drawing at the age of seven, using a forbidden tool: his papa's goose quill pen. The last pages include a summary of West's adult life, small reproductions of three of his paintings, suggestions for where to see his work, and brief source notes for this book. A fascinating look at art in colonial times, and a likable portrait of the artist as a young boy.

The Art Room
Susan Vande Griek
2002
Groundwood Books
ISBN: 0888994494
Hardcover - 24 pages
Ages 9-12

In this beautifully crafted picture book, New Brunswick children's author Susan Vande Griek describes what it would have been like to take art classes from Canadian painter Emily Carr. The "art room" is the small Vancouver studio at the top of "that new stone building on Granville Street" where in the early 1900s Carr eked out her meagre existence teaching drawing and painting to children.

Linnea in Monet's Garden
Christina Bjork, Lena Anderson (Illustrator)
1987
Farrar Straus & Giroux (Juv)
ISBN: 9129583144
52 pages
Ages 6-9

Top of page