Katie and the Sunflowers

Katie and Grandma are planting their garden when a downpour of rain interrupts. They decide to take a visit to the museum instead where Katie is captured by the beauty of the Vincent van Gogh painting Sunflowers and tries to take a few sunflower seeds for her own garden. But that action sets off a chain of reactions and soon she is involved in a madcap adventure throughout the museum, including in and out of its many paintings!

I had previously read Katie and the Starry Night, another book in this series, and had very much enjoyed it so I decided to check this one out also. On the first reading, I didn't like this one quite as much and thought it was a little too much to include the artists' names and the names of the paintings into the show more story's text. But on a second read, I really enjoyed this book and decided I didn't mind this incorporation that much after all. In fact, when I went back to Katie and the Starry Night, I saw that the painting titles and artists' names had been incorporated in to that book's text, but I guessed it just flowed a little bit so it hadn't stood out to me as much as in this title (the first time around).

The story ends up involving five different paintings by three different artists - Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Paul Cezanne. Katie's museum and painting adventures, which include a little dog with a mind of his own, make the pictures come to life and therefore exciting to young kids. The book also ends with an informative note with a little more background on each artist and their connections to each other.

The illustrations are wonderful, depicting the original paintings and then using those settings and characters in new ways to support the story. All in all, I would very much recommend this book to young readers, especially in the context of learning about art (e.g., when about to visit a museum or gallery). show less

Of course one must suspend disbelief, which is sometimes difficult for me, but for the sake of this funny little adventure I was able to do so. Mayhew's Katie @ the art museum books are a good way to introduce the youngest members of the family to the idea of looking closely at the pictures, imagining the scene as a piece of reality, with a story to tell.

I absolutely love this book. It wouldn't be a good book to read word-for-word to a young child, but a pre-schooler and kindergartener is sure to love the colors and fanciful events. It's just the kind of book to capture a child's imagination and draw them into a world built upon paintings. It's also a decent introduction to the idea of art in general.

Very good book, and I highly recommend it.

A gentle, imaginative story about a little girl who interacts with the objects and people in several famous paintings. My students enjoyed reading this as a follow-up to the beautiful [b:Vincent's Colors|19599|Vincent's Colors|Victoria Charles|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347456434s/19599.jpg|20823].

Katie visits the museum and is magically able to interact with the aret of Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin. The story introduces children to art in a fun, engaging way.

This book is about a little girl who goes to an art museum with her grandmother and then she suddenly finds herself inside the paintings of many famous artists. This is a fun book that could be used to teach about famous artists mentioned in this book: Van Gogh, Gaugin, Cezanne.

Wonderful book continuing the story of Katie and her adventures. Today she learns about the artists: Van Gogh, Gaugin and Cezanne.