Once Upon a Picture - Hardcover

Sally Swain is the author of Great Housewives of Art, Great Housewives of Art Revisited, and Oh My Goddess.

Grade 1-5–This playful book visually extends the stories behind fine-art paintings. The phrase upon a picture we might wonder... precedes an expansion of ideas about the subjects in each painting. Illustrations on the following several pages then reveal a fantasy sequence done in a style that imitates the original art. For example, a tumbling figure of a little girl from Pierre-Auguste Renoirs The Umbrellas rolls her hoop to play in the mud. From Paul Klees The Twittering Machine, a tree, alive with twitters and tweets, is cut down by an errant gardener until he realizes the error of his ways and rescues a sprig. Swains version of the story behind Van Goghs The Starry Night provides a dramatic view of a boy and his cat gazing first at the stars, then surrounded by the blazing warmth of a golden moon. The angled swirls with striking gold, orange, and blue perfectly complement the original painting. Henri Rousseaus Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) has a big cat transformed by the rain from a striped creature to one bedecked with flowers under a cloudless blue expanse. Four additional pictures by the same artists appear at the end and challenge readers to create their own extensions. A feast for the eyes and a creative teaching tool, this slim volume is a welcome addition for any library.–Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.