Once Upon a Picture

Title: Once Upon a Picture

Author: Sally Swain

Illustrator: Sally Swain

Picture book for ages (approximately) 7 and up

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Summary:

This picture book teaches art appreciation by featuring four different famous works of art and helps them come alive.

Opinion:

I originally grabbed this book because of the cover art. It was beautiful, I had no idea what the book was about, but I checked it out regardless. While reading it I found it was about art appreciation though those exact words are never used. Swain takes four famous works and features them in the top left corner of a page. She then poses a question about it. For example, her first feature was the painting The Umbrellas by Pierre-Augueste Renoir. In it there are many people with umbrellas and in the bottom right there is a little girl holding a hoop. Swain then poses the question “What does she want to do?” She then brings the painting to life throughout the next seven pages, mimicking Renoir’s artistic style, showing the little girl playing first with her hoop and then in the mud. She repeats this format with three other paintings showing children how to think critically about art.

The illustrations are amazing. Each famous painting has corresponding art done by her for several pages telling her thoughts about each painting. They are so much fun to look at you could spend a long time just looking at the art in this book.

I would definitely use this in my classroom both on my library shelf as well as in reading groups or as a read aloud book. An illustrator study on Swain might be good too. It is also a nice book for those students, or adults in my case, that have never been to an art museum or display of any kind. You get to see famous works come to life and it brings a whole other aspect to art.