Lena Anderson (1) (1939–)

Cute story; if I come across another Linnea book I'll read it. She's an established character in a series of books; in this one, she and an adult friend take a trip to France to visit Monet's house and garden, and delight in finding the scenes that he painted so often. A pleasant and at least mildly interesting story, which ends up being a sketchy biography of Monet as well. The illustrations are very nice, drawings of the garden and what they see as well as photographs of Monet and his show more family (some "never before published", it says). show less

Hm. Nice enough, but, for how (relatively) long it was, I wanted more. I can just hear my young self asking questions. What other artists were Impressionists? What else did Monet paint? There's so much more than water lilies. Otoh, the tight focus may serve a novice well.

I guess the thing that bothered me the most was how invasive Linnea was, picking leaves for souvenirs, etc.. Even Mr. Bloom assumed that it would be likely they could picnic on the grounds of Monet's home. And one of the show more first pictures shows Linnea's nose inches from a painting in a museum. True, she does have her hands behind her back, but please don't think that even the steam from her breath should be that close to a work that needs to be preserved for posterity. show less

This is one of my all-time favorite children's books. This book introduced me to my favorite artist, the French Impressionist Monet. When I was little I loved to pour over these pages and imagine I was Linnea, journeying across France to visit Monet's garden and see his art with my own eyes. What a fun adventure! I still like to look through this book and enjoy discovering Monet through Linnea's creative eyes. Linnea is a great heroine for children's books. She is very creative, friendly, show more and loves plants and growing things! This is a great book to get kids interested in art. show less

Monet is my favorite artist and even tho this book is written for children the child in me very much enjoyed this book. The story and pictures are wonderful and I can't wait to read this book to my grandchildren.