Without searching hard at all,
I can find dozens of children’s books about Claude Monet in my library.
Clever, creative, gorgeous accounts, many of them. Don’t get me wrong – I love Monet’s work. I had the great joy of being in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris last year, basking in the serenity of his Water Lilies paintings. The whole building is a triumph.
It’s just that there are so many diverse artists and styles;
so many different mediums and such a vast variety of reasons artists make what they make. Meeting artists-who-are-not-Monet offers us and our kids room to appreciate broader swaths of art, see the world with many sets of eyes, and unleash more of our own imagination and creativity. So today, I’ve got books introducing a range of fascinating artists. But not Monet.
Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Photographer Roy DeCarava
written by Gary Golio, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
published in 2024 by Calkins Creek
Roy DeCarava saw tremendous beauty and dignity in the ordinary, workaday, faces and places of his home, Harlem. He saw love and joy, noticed light and shadow, framed them and – SNAP – caught them on film. His keen eye saw with freshness the endearing anecdotes of life on sidewalks and front stoops, in barbershops and at bus stops.
Through his photography, he lifted up “the unknown and unnamed” preserving their strength and liveliness, glee and weariness. Their humanity.
Via minimal, lyrical text and lovely, light-saturated artwork, Golio and Lewis introduce DeCarava and his work. It’s a superb book. I could go on and on and on about it! But I’ll just recommend you get it and see for yourself. The end pages provide lots more details about Mr. DeCarava and beckon readers to see anew, and perhaps photograph, their own worlds. Ages 4-5 and up.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude Wrap the World: The Story of Two Groundbreaking Environmental Artists
written by Greg Neri, illustrated by Elizabeth Haidle
published in 2023 by Candlewick Press
Covered in Color: Christo & Jeanne-Claude’s Fabrics of Freedom
written by Elisa Boxer, illustrated by Susanna Chapman
published in 2022 by Abrams Book for Young Readers
I poured over these books, trying to decide which one to include, and in the end decided to pop them both into my post.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude are perhaps best known, at least in the US, for their installment of The Gates in 2005 in Central Park, NYC. These two collaborators, though, experimented with unusual, groundbreaking, monumental expressions of art long before that. Their art was shrouded in mystery yet expansive with possibility; it was met with derision and with joy; it was incredibly time-consuming, yet always temporary; it evolved over their decades together yet stayed true to some of their firmly-held beliefs about public art.
Neri’s account is by far the deeper exploration of what these two were about. Through real and imagined dialogue between them, he helps us wonder, question, debate, ideate, about what art is, and specifically what Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s artistic forms might convey. The illustration work is lovely, muted, thoughtful. For older children, say ages 7 and up, this book will be a great conversational read-together.
Boxer’s account and Chapman’s illustration work have a more light-hearted vibrancy to them. We learn more about Christo’s background, which is remarkable and helpful, and Boxer ties that specifically into the meaning of his artwork whereas Neri leaves the interpretation more open-ended. This book is more accessible to younger children, say ages 4 and up.
Both feature substantial back matter which fills in more information about Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work. Neri’s also includes two pages of amazing fun facts; Boxer’s includes some photographs which are a great addition.
For art that challenges our definitions and boundaries, you can’t do better than to meet this iconic pair.
On the Tip of a Wave: How Ai Weiwei’s Art is Changing the Tide
written by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Cátia Chien
published in 2023 by Orchard Books
Ai Weiwei is a current Chinese artist and activist who, like Christo, as a child belonged to a family fiercely persecuted by the government and who eventually became a refugee. His mother described their existence in those brutal years as living “on the tip of a wave.” Always in danger.
These experiences and others shaped Ai as well as his art and activism. His profound empathy for the plight of refugees, and his dynamic, elastic ways of thinking and approaching materials have led him to create groundbreaking contemporary art including his installation Safe Passages incorporating orange life jackets from those escaping over the sea.
Weiwei’s powerful story, accompanied by emotive artwork in sea blues and lifejacket oranges, is important and accessible to children ages about 6 and up. Back matter includes more information about Weiwei for middle graders through adults as well as photos of some of his artwork.
The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane
written by C.M. Millen, illustrated by Andrew Wisnewski
published in 2010 by Charlesbridge
From present day we zoom back in time to the Middle Ages and to the many anonymous artists – monks – who turned their parchments into painstaking, precious works of art, one brush stroke at a time.
This delightful, fictionalized account introduces a young Irish monk. Dear Theophane struggles with the endless task of copying old texts and thus is reassigned to cook up the brown ink they need. His love for the outdoors, however, and curious nature leads him to discover ways to make many vibrant hues of ink which the brothers then use to illuminate their manuscripts.
Written in a most pleasant, gently-rhyming cadence and illustrated in sumptuous colors and medieval style, the main text of this book is interesting, playful, and thoroughly accessible to children ages 4 and up. The Author’s Note provides lots more intriguing details about the processes of illuminating texts by Irish monks for middle graders and adults. Great choice to read before heading to a museum containing original illuminated manuscripts.
Wall to Wall: Mural Art Around the World
written by Mary Ann Fraser with Elizabeth Nicholson, illustrated by Mary Ann Fraser
published in 2024 by Getty Publications
Painting on the walls is something inherent to humans, I think. Certainly we’ve been at it since prehistoric times. And every kid seems to gravitate toward using those broad spaces for their own creative embellishments! When my youngest two were middle-graders, we handed over the stairwell to the basement to them and their friends to mural at will.
It’s an art practice simultaneously basic and revolutionary, original and universal, ancient and contemporary, obvious and surreptitious, and it’s a way for many voices to be heard outside of gallery spaces — when George Floyd was murdered here in Minneapolis, prolific, spontaneous murals and street art were created throughout the city.
This survey of mural art stops in at various locations over the course of millennia. Colorful, heavily-illustrated pages are grouped into succinct 4-page chapters. Visit Patagonian caves, Egyptian tombs, and an Italian city buried by ash from Mt Vesuvius. See art inspired by Buddhism and Islam, murals by famous artists like Diego Rivera and by anonymous Indian women in the seclusion of their homes, contemporary graffiti art and royal art from an African kingdom.
This informative book seems especially well suited to kids with an interest in public art, graffiti, or street art, ages 9 and up. Once you are aware of the prolific nature of street art and murals, you’ll start spotting them all over the cities where you live or visit. My thanks to Getty Publications for a review copy of this book.
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That’s it for today. Of course, if you do actually want to read some books about Monet, you can find my reviews of a few of them here:
Claude Monet: The Painter Who Stopped the Trains
The Garden of Monsieur Monet
Monet Paints a Day
Mornings with Monet
If you’d like to explore lots more art and artists, you’ll find dozens of fascinating books linked to my reviews here.
If you don’t want to miss future posts with more juicy books about everything under the sun, you can follow my blog by clicking on the three little lines at the top left of the page!
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