I have a computer file with wonderful images of people and things. I have collected the images for sometime and find myself drawn to the art of the past and to the work of illustrators. I do not use the images commercially but for my own pleasure. It is difficult to expose children to wonderful art and so I decided to do it this way.
Tell Me About It is a book for girls. Each picture shows a girl doing something. As I point to each picture, I will ask my granddaughters to tell me about the picture. The limits of their own imaginations will be their only barrier and as we all know, children’s imaginations are limitless !
This book contains all kinds of art from different times. As you can see, some images are more contemporary. They are the beautiful work of various children’s book illustrators. I am excited for my grandchildren to see their work. I am familiar with many of the books and they will likely be familiar with them too.
What Is Happening? is a book for boys. This book has some words and some questions. Boys who are learning to read can answer the questions themselves and those who are too little to read can answer the questions by looking at the pictures with some grown-up help. This book is also a compilation of old painting and illustrations from various artists. Many are contemporary. I have favorites both old and new as I am sure the children will.
Some of the most beautiful and touching paintings both ancient and modern have a religious theme. This book is for both boys and girls. It gives the newly reading child a word under each picture to get started. This is a good way for parents and grandparents to find out what the children know and what they do not understand. I thought that this would be a good book for grade school-age children to take to church.
As you can see, we can talk about Christ in the Temple and Christ calming the waters. We can talk about the young boy Jesus teaching in the Temple and about Joseph being sold into Egypt by his brothers. We can talk about what happened when Daniel was put in the lions’ den and who betrayed Christ with a kiss. We can also expose children to beautiful art and ask them:
What Else Do You See ?
Now that these images are collaged and in my computer, I can produce books for each of my grandchildren simply by printing out the pages, laminating them and binding the book. Each book has several pages. I have already thought that if the older children showed a particular interest in a particular painting or illustration, I would research it and tell them about the artist or find a book by the contemporary illustrator.
“There is nothing quite as inspirational
as a beautiful painting or a wonderful illustration.
If I had enough walls, I would hang them everywhere.”
-Grandma-