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GET INTO ART by Susie Brooks

GET INTO ART

Animals

by Susie Brooks ; illustrated by Susie Brooks

Pub Date: Aug. 20th, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7534-7058-9
Publisher: Kingfisher

Families may want to ride the DIY wave with this attractive British import, which publishes simultaneously with the similarly conceived Get into Art: People (2013).

Youngsters are presented with a dozen works of art featuring animals and accompanying art projects of varying degrees of difficulty. The bright primary-colored cover and lively design (featuring a flap in each double-page spread) belie the inherent difficulty of most of these projects. The majority require far more than the usual paper-crayons-paste-scissors level of art supplies. Parents and teachers will need to carefully check the materials list for each project and gauge the child’s skill level to avoid frustration or failure. Some projects are simple and satisfying—like a vibrant cut-paper collage inspired by Matisse’s The Snail. Others are more complex and require adult support. A take on Escher’s Fish (E59) requires “graph paper, thin card stock, glue, ruler, pencil, scissors, tape, white paper, colouring materials (for example markers, oil pastels, watercolor paint, paintbrushes).” Brooks then directs children to create individual fish “outlined in marker, shaded with oil pastel [and] washed over with watercolor paint.” They are to then be pasted down in a carefully matched, tiled design for an Escher-style “Fish Squish.”

When enjoyed by adults and kids together, this book will deliver a pleasing, fresh mix of animal-art–inspired projects utilizing varying media and techniques.

(table of contents, glossary, art materials checklist, index) (Nonfiction. 7-12)