The Magical Garden of Claude Monet

by Laurence Anholt

Book Overview

A lovely book about artist, Claude Monet from the series, Anholt's Artists Books for Children. Julie lives in Paris, but she longs to walk in a beautiful country garden. When her mother takes her on a visit to rural Giverny, Julie discovers a beautiful garden and befriends the man she believes is the gardener. In fact, he is the garden's owner, the immortal artist Claude Monet.

Parents, teachers, and gift givers will...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764138553
• ISBN13: 9780764138553
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Explore
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 8.9" x 11.3"
• Age Range: 6 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 4

Customer Reviews

Great intro to Monet for kids!

This is a really wonderful introduction to Money for children. Beautiful illustrations, cute story, also based on a real little girl. My early elementary kids loved this book along with our Simply Charlotte Mason Picture Study of Monet.

Excellent introduction to Monet

I'm always on the lookout for intelligent, engaging books in Spanish for my four-year old. When I happened upon this book at the library, I immediately took it out and read it to my child. She was quickly taken in by the book with its beautiful artwork and interesting story, so I bought it. We read this book frequently and I often find my daughter looking through the book on her own. I highly recommend this book if you're seeing an introduction to Monet. Siempre estoy buscando libros inteligentes e interesantes en espanyol para my hija de cuatro anyos. Encontre este libro en la biblioteca y se lo lei a mi ninya. A ella le encanto los dibujos y el cuento, por lo tanto, lo compre. Lo leemos juntas con frecuencia y muchas veces encuentro a mi ninya mirando los dibujos solita. Recomiendo este libro si buscas una introducion al arte de Monet.

Magical Garden inspired my students

Anholt's lovely book about Monet is my favorite of the series about famous artists. He demystifies impressionism and actually inspires children to paint their own "magical gardens"!!

Art Appreceation for children

Fine art apprecation was a lost thing among adults let alone children, encouraging an understanding of art at a young age will encorage intrest in art in children and their caregivers alike. Help kids enjoy art and culture while reading a fun story. With this book, (and the others in the series) they introduce kids to the famous artworks of great painters throughout history while encoraging a childs imagination to be creative and tell a story with each picture. This story is even better because it is based on factual people, even the little girl. She embarks on a journey with her mother to visit a friend..the little girl ends up chasing her runaway dog on the trip and finds herself in a most magnificent garden..only to find out that is the "friend" they were going to visit. This book is wonderful, historical, educational, and fun. It encourages children to think about paintings, and to form images and stories for each one, to think about "what would it be like to be inside that painting".

Great for Toddlers

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet is a great way to expose young children to impressionist art. My son loved the story of Julie in Monet's garden. Julie is a young French girl who takes a train with her Mother to visit Monet's garden. As they arrive into the countryside, her dog runs away and is found in Monet's garden. Soon the painter and Julie become friends. The illustrations are bright and colorful. You almost feel as if you are inside one of Monet's paintings. Children will be captivated by the story as well as the beautiful pictures.

Breathtaking journey for children into Monet's paintings

I have long been a fan of Linnea in Monet's Garden - so I was very excited to find this new series of books by Laurence Anholt. Anholt's approach to introducing children to these artists - he has covered Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, and DaVinci - is to use their art to create the backgrounds and settings for his characters. This book in particular is my favorite of the series because it is crowned with a fold out of Monet's vivid Waterlilies with a tiny boat floating across it carrying the story's members - Monet and a little girl who happens upon his garden. Before it is over, the little girl plucks one of the lilies from the famous painting as a memoir. My daughter loves this picture - and it is almost surreal to me to see Monet's art coming to life in such a manner. I can hardly wait until she visits the museum and sees the real painting. Watching her make this connection should be very exciting. Aside from this stunning mixture of Monet's work and Anholt's own lush artwork - carefully drawn to compliment the featured art - the book gives some great educational information about Monet by weaving it into the story - all this without ever starting to sound like a textbook. The story retains its' focus and its' charm without becoming boring. That is an amazing accomplishment in my opinion. I hope to purchase the entire set for a lovely and educational Christmas gift. These are sure to become beloved classics. Any children's book that learns to entertain both child and parent equally often does.