Rosie Dickins

Not sure what my thinking was when I purchased this. I think I saw it as a great introduction to art for my son. But I've just finished reading it and not quite sure whether it was great for me or for my 15 year old. Probably both. The language is very simple; the short sections make it easy to digest; there are on-line links..but not to Usborne's own art collection but to public collections in national galleries etc. It probably should have something in the title about Western Art because show more there is no discussion there of Asian Art, or Pacific Art or Latin American Art etc. But this is a minor criticism really. There are a number of nice personal vignettes such as Caravaggio killing a man over a game of tennis and having to flee the country. I think they have managed to pack a lot of art and art history and art theory into a well illustrated and entertaining book. Certainly easy to read....I learned a lot from it. Happy to give it 5 stars and will be recommending it to my son.....whether he will read it is another issue. show less

This is a ScratchJr project book written for children. It's spiral bound and 48 pages long. The first 12 pages are abstract remarks about coding, which are best skipped. The artwork is a certain kind of flat artwork which I feel is far too prevalent nowadays, but works well for a book that is really just a set of project instructions. There are some small chapters devoted to specific projects, and some to how to use important parts of the Scratch IDE, like the paint interface. I thought all show more of this was rather well done. show less

this book seemed a little too graphic at times for a younger audience. it started off typical fairytale story and morphed into a story with human eating mermaids and witch hunts. It was a strange book but could still be interesting for an older elementary crowd.

What a fun book this is! With colorful cartoonish illustrations and over 90 flaps to lift, it might appear to be for little kids, but there is a lot of information introduced. Topics include: atoms and atomic structure, molecules, compounds, states of matter, chemical reactions, the origin of atoms, nuclear fission, radioactive decay, and the periodic table. Perfect for my third grader with an interest in chemistry.