Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Can You Find It, Too?
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 6 to 9
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Harry N. Abrams, 2004 ISBN: 978-0810950467
Often when you look at a painting in a museum, there are details that capture your interest. In a picture of a farmyard, you see a cat sitting in a window or a boy stealing a loaf of bread. Not everyone will notice these details, but for some reason you do. If you have someone with you, it is fun to challenge your companion to find the things that you have seen. Then they can challenge you to find small details that they have seen in the painting. Exploring a piece of art in this way allows you to discover elements in the art that you might have missed. As you play the “Can you find it?” game you will discover that “in the process of looking, you learn so much about the paintings.”
In this book, the author challenges us to look at paintings that are on display in four American museums and seven international collections. In all, there are twenty paintings to explore. Some show scenes from everyday life, while others show scenes from stories or from history. For each painting, the author challenges us to find a number of things that are shown in the artwork. For example, in a painting from India that shows a scene from an epic tale, we are asked to find - among other things - a magical horse, one golden eye, and a lotus flower.
At the back of this title, readers will find further information about the paintings shown in the book, and illustrations show us where to find the things mentioned in the text.
