Review: Touch the Art Books & Giveaway

Summary: Like most children, painters throughout history have loved animals—and this gallery of delightfully touchable creatures showcases a menagerie of artistic beasts. Little hands will enjoy stroking a red feather on Picasso’s The Rooster, feeling soft fleece in Milton Avery’s Sheep, 1952, and petting a kitten’s whiskers in Henri Rousseau’s The Tabby. They can even smell a scratch-and-sniff cheese surface on van Gogh’s Two Rats! -- Sterling


Summary: Experience the wonders of ancient Egypt! This long-gone civilization will come alive for kids when they actually feel a gold coffin with the tomb of the legendary King Tut, the scratchy pyramids at Giza, the gauzy covering on a mummy, and Nefertiti’s jewels. It’s a really cool way to make both art and history accessible to even the youngest children. -- Sterling

When I first saw CATCH PICASSO'S ROOSTER and TICKLE TUT'S TOES by Julie Appel and Amy Guglielmo, I just thought they were absolutely adorable. Big, bright board books that not only featured artwork and artifacts, but were also interactive. I just knew my little guy would love to read (and play) with these books. And I have to admit that I was excited to read books about some things that I might find interesting!

These books were a huge hit with my five year old. He is the ideal age for these books -- the publisher's recommended age is 4 to 6 years old. He has always loved interactive books, and we've found that he is just getting too old for many of them. I think that's why he appreciated these books so much. He could touch and play with the books without feeling like they were too babyish! Having said that, I certainly think children even younger than 4 years old would enjoy both of these books too.

CATCH PICASSO'S ROOSTER has many famous painting by artists such as Picasso, Rousseau, and Van Gogh. Each page is filled with rhyming words, animal sounds as well as some beautiful artwork. There are also many things that will appeal to a child's senses such as a feather, textured fabrics, and even a scratch and sniff page. I especially enjoyed the last two pages where the author gave additional information about each of the paintings in the book -- I kind of considered that the "parent part."

We also had a lot of fun reading TICKLE TUT'S TOES. My son and I recently read a book about mummies so he was very interested when I told him that King Tut was a mummy! Like CATCH PICASSO'S ROOSTER, this book was filled with interesting pictures of artwork and artifacts. There were also different textures on each page for him to investigate. I think I enjoyed this book a little more than my son did. I am very interested in ancient Egypt, and I thought the detailed explanations of the artifacts at the end of the book were fascinating.

I consider both of these book to be educational and fun at the same time. I like that CATCH PICASSO'S ROOSTER gives children a brief introduction to art and some famous artists; and I thought that TICKLE TUT'S TOES did a great job of showing some ancient artifacts while also explaining their meanings. What's probably the best thing about these both of these books is that kids will love interacting with the artwork.

There is a very fun website devoted to the Touch the Art Books which gives you more information about this series. Besides CATCH PICASSO'S ROOSTER and TICKLE TUT'S TOES, there are some other books in the series including POP WARHOL'S TOP, BRUSH MONA LISA'S HAIR, FEED MATISSE'S FISH and MAKE VAN GOGH'S BED. There are also different types of art project ideas as well as teacher lesson plans, games, and activities associated with the books.

Are you interested in winning your very own copy of a Touch the Art Book? Thanks to Sterling Publishing, I have a copy of CATCH PICASSO'S ROOSTER to share with one lucky reader. To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment with your e-mail address telling me which one of these books appeals to you. To double or triple your chances, you can blog and/or tweet about this giveaway with a link back to this post. This contest will be open until Tuesday, November 17 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and I will notify the winner the following day. This giveaway is open to those of you with U.S. and Canada mailing addresses only -- no p.o. boxes please. Good luck!

Thanks to the publisher for sending me copies of these books!