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Reviews
Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children's History of Art by Kate Evans, Michael Bird
babayagareads's review against another edition
5.0
Art as a children's history lesson and it's perfect.
princewales's review against another edition
4.0
It took me almost a year to find the mood and read this fiction stories about the artists of famous pieces of art. I liked it, but I now understand that I would love real stories better.
mouthy_books's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.5
bookworm_baggins's review against another edition
5.0
We spent a month reading aloud through this history of art. The book is laid out in periods of art, with each featured artist building on the previous one to give a wonderful story arch to the creative process through history. Each artist is spotlighted in a three page story with a single featured piece of their work. The story is usually a snapshot of their life at the moment of creating the art, perhaps with background information, insight into art techniques, and historic and geographic information. We really enjoyed this and highly recommend it.
jar7709's review against another edition
4.0
PM read-aloud. This was our main art appreciation for the year. It is quite a gentle introduction to major visual artists and movements from prehistory to the present, with an example artwork alongside three pages of context. The context usually takes the form of fictonalized p.o.v by the artist or an observer or craftsman related to the artist or the work. I would not at all call this an in-depth analysis, but it isn't meant to be. It aims to introduce kids to a sampling of artworks humans have produced over time, and give them an introduction into the ways to view and give meaning to art. This it did admirably. I also enjoy that the images chosen were often not the most famous works by an individual famous artist, sometimes referencing more famous works in the text only; to us this encouraged further curiosity and impulse to go look those up. My primary quibble with the book is the quality of the images reproduced, which often seemed fuzzy, making even photographs appearing 'painterly' to my eye. Oh well. I do think my kids are likely on the older end of the age range for this book, but they still found it interesting enough. I'll be looking for something a little more complex next.
bibliokris's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful book full of meaningful works of art from many different world cultures and artists. The stories of the works of art and about the artists are included. Highly recommended for children, teens and adults.
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