Resource Center
Children’s Book Briefs
the I Can Read series, entertains
as well as sends a message praising
subjective artistic interpretation.
Museum Trip. Barbara Lehman.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin,
2006. Illus., hardcover, 40 pp.,
$15.00.
ored drawings and simply rendered
characters enhance the mysterious
aspect of this adventure, and youngsters and art lovers alike will enjoy
traveling through the mazes and
identifying each artwork.
—Reviewed by Ken Marantz, professor
emeritus of art education at Ohio State
University.
Ruby Paints a Picture. Susan Hill,
illustrated by Margie Moore. New
York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Illus., hardcover, 32 pp., $15.99.
Ruby is a young raccoon with an
itch to paint a picture of “a big
tree.” But as a series of her animal
friends stop by, she decides to add
each of them to her canvas, causing a bit of a space problem. To top
it all off, Ruby’s friends complain
that she fails to paint “the very
best part” of each of them. But the
moral of this story is that Ruby has
indeed captured what she believes
is the essence of her friends: their
smiling faces. This book, part of
This wordless tale is valuable for
art-interested people because it
demonstrates the potency of the
visual narrative and it takes place
in an art museum. The book follows the adventures of a young boy
(previously appearing in The Red
Book) who, while on a field trip,
gets lost and finds himself wandering through a modern gallery
of labyrinths. While studying the
paintings, he suddenly finds himself
inside one of them. After solving
puzzle upon puzzle, the boy, now a
hero with a medal around his neck,
leaves the maze and rejoins his
class. Was this just the boy’s imagination? Or did he really become
part of the maze? Lehman’s col-
Circles around Town. Nathan
Olson. Mankato, MN: Capstone
Press, 2006. Illus., hardcover, 32
pp., 23.93.
The ability to see distinctively is
thematic in this book and others
in the Shapes around Town series.
Circles, which are an appealing
subject in the pre-K classroom, are
the focus here. The descriptive text
includes questions that encourage
comparative thought for older students. Photographs reveal examples
of circles within everyday urban
life including bakeries, street signs,
and playgrounds. A simple glossary,
index, and reference explain essential vocabulary and introduce the
importance of research. English language learners will benefit from this
simple yet thought-provoking book.
Arte Povera. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (editor). New York, NY:
Phaidon Press, 2005. Illus., soft-cover, 304 pp., $39.95.
The power and breadth of demands
for social change during the 1960s
reverberates today as a faint heartbeat pounding for revolution in contemporary art. Christov-Bakargiev
presents a comprehensive survey of
a significant group of Italian artists
who rejected “high art” in favor of
radical ideas such as the rejection of
consumer values and Western bourgeois society. Aligned with other
major art movements—including
Land Art, minimalism, and Conceptual Art—Arte Povera (poor art)
