Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

Touch the Art: Catch Picasso's Rooster

Touch the Art: Catch Picasso's Rooster

Julie Appel, Amy Guglielmo
Novelty Board Book
For ages 4 to 6
Sterling, 2009   ISBN: 978-1402759048

Picasso’s rooster is loose and he is challenging you to “catch him if you can.” With the  bright red feathers on his head blazing, and a strange look in his skewed eyes, he is a funny looking bird.

If you follow the rooster, you will get to see a variety of famous paintings showing farm animals and scenes. Here is the farmer who is milking his cow. Touch the farmer’s overalls and you can feel the roughness of the denim fabric.

Next, the rooster will take you to see Henri Rousseau’s painting of a striped cat with wiry whiskers.

Follow the rooster again and he will take you to see Albrecht Durer’s lifelike painting of a hare. You can touch its side and feel its soft fur.

In this clever book young art fans can touch, feel, and even smell, nine works of art that were created by such artists as Vincent van Gogh, George Stubbs, and Grant Wood. Children will enjoy the way the rooster we meet on the first page leads us from painting to painting crowing as he goes.

At the back of the book, the authors include further information about the painters whose works are displayed in this title. This book is one in a series of Touch the Art titles.