Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen
Sassy is a long-legged girl who always has something to say. She wants to be a ballerina more than anything, but she worries that her too-large feet, too-long legs, and even her big mouth will keep her from her dream. When a famous director comes to visit her class, Sassy does her best to get his attention with her high jumps and bright leotard. Dancing in the Wings is loosely based on actress/choreographer Debbie Allen’s own experiences as a young dancer.
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
One evening Harold decides to go for a walk in the moonlight. Armed only with an oversize purple crayon, young Harold draws himself a landscape full of wonder and excitement. Harold and his trusty crayon travel through woods and across seas and past dragons before returning to bed, safe and sound. Full of funny twists and surprises, this charming story shows your child just how far an imagination can take you.
How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Art Life Museum by Keri Smith
Perfect for older kids, How to Be an Explorer in the World encourages readers to observe, collect, document, analyze, and compare the world around them as artists and scientists. Through this series of beautifully hand-illustrated interactive prompts, readers will enjoy exploring and discovering the world in ways they never even imagined.
Matisse’s Garden by Samantha Friedman
One day, the French artist Henri Matisse cut a small bird out of a piece of paper. It looked lonely all by itself, so he cut out more shapes to join it. Before he knew it, Matisse had transformed his walls into larger-than-life gardens, filled with brightly colored plants, animals, and shapes of all sizes. Featuring cut-paper illustrations and interactive foldout pages, Matisse’s Garden is the inspiring story of how the artist’s never-ending curiosity helped turn a small experiment into a radical new form of art.
Sonia Delaunay: A Life of Color by Cara Manes
Sonia Delaunay, painter and textile, theater, and fashion designer, made enormous contributions to the development of abstraction in the early 1910s. In this book, Delaunay and her six-year-old son Charles have a fantastical adventure in their car, modeled after her 1925 design for a Citroën convertible. They glide into a landscape of colors and shapes, as if they’ve driven into one of her paintings. Delaunay helps Charles understand her artistic process by asking him what shapes and colors he recognizes along the way, and Charles realizes that his mother’s thoughts about art permeate every aspect of their life.
Sophie’s Masterpiece: A Spider’s Tale by Eileen Spinelli and Jane Dyer’s
Sophie is an artist who wants to spin beautiful creations all day long and, someday, a masterpiece. As a spider, though, Sophie has a hard time finding a welcoming place in which she can be free to live and spin. She’s shooed and shuffled all over Beekman’s Boardinghouse until one day she finally finds the warm, comfortable, safe home for which she always yearned — and the inspiration for the masterpiece of her lifetime.
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