🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🖼️ Visual Literacy — Reading pictures — interpreting what they show, what details they add, how they relate to the words — develops visual literacy: the ability to extract meaning from images that underlies comprehension of graphs, diagrams, and media.
- 🌈 Imagination & Creativity — Entering a book's world — imagining the setting, characters, and events — exercises creative and narrative thinking that enriches pretend play, story creation, and the ability to generate original ideas.
- 🌍 World Knowledge & Background Knowledge — Nonfiction and information-rich picture books build background knowledge that accelerates reading comprehension — children who know more about the world understand more of what they read across every subject area.
- 🎵 Phonological Awareness — Books with rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and wordplay directly develop phonological awareness — the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in language — which is the strongest single predictor of reading success at school entry.
A Child's Book of Art
by Lucy Mickelthwait
From the Preschool Book
There is no better guide [to art] than a child, for children look at every picture with fresh eyes and honesty; they look straight into a picture to absorb what is there and they respond instinctively.
About the Preschool Book
A wonderful introduction to famous paintings, this beautiful picture book is sure to capture your preschooler’s interest. An early introduction to art will help give your preschooler a good base in art appreciation. As the author says, “It is never too early to introduce children to art.”
From the Reviewer
There are over 100 paintings included in the book. Each two-page spread has carefully selected child-friendly paintings based on a preschool theme. For example, there is section titled, “Counting.” Five paintings are included, and they are labeled, “one boy, two angels, three girls, four sisters, and five children.” Some other themes include “In the Garden, Pets, Birds, Colors, A Time to Play” and more. This layout is wonderful for helping preschoolers see similarities and differences between the paintings.
While the book is recommended for baby-preschool, this book is sure to be a favorite for years to come. It is one that will grow with your child, and is well worth the purchase price.
Even if you, as the adult, have not had much exposure to the art, this is an easy way to introduce art. It’s also just as fascinating for adults as it is for children. The book includes a note to parents and teachers on how to best use the book as well as some additional information about the artwork if you want to find out more.
Book Details
A Child's Book of Art
by Lucy Mickelthwait
Reading Level: Baby-Preschool
Harcover: 64 pages
Publisher: DK CHILDREN; 1st American ed edition (November 8, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1564582035
Hi! I'm
Molly Christensen, the Preschool Books writer at PreschoolRock.com. I have five wonderful children, ranging in age from 1 to 12. We own hundreds and hundreds of books and we all read a lot! I love playing games and reading with preschoolers and I often teach preschool classes. If you have a good book you'd like to recommend or just want to share your ideas and suggestions, please
contact me.
Audiobooks develop many of the same literacy skills as adult read-alouds: vocabulary, comprehension, story structure, and phonological awareness. The primary difference: a skilled narrator or author reading their own work often delivers superior prosody (the musical rise and fall of language) compared to a tired parent reading at bedtime. The primary advantage of parent read-alouds: the social interaction — pointing, questioning, discussing — that maximizes comprehension. Both are valuable; neither should entirely replace the other.
The volume is less important than the consistency. Even one book per day, read with engagement and followed by brief conversation, delivers significant developmental benefit. Many families read 3–5 books at bedtime plus additional books throughout the day — this is excellent and associated with the strongest reading outcomes. If you can only manage one daily reading session, make it consistent, engaged, and joyful rather than perfunctory.
