Katie Meets the Impressionists

Katie and her grandmother decide to visit the art museum for Grandma's birthday. While there, Katie desires to pick the flowers she sees in a painting so that she can have a gift for Grandma's birthday. She finds that she can climb in and out of different paintings, having various adventures as she tries to find the perfect bouquet of flowers for Grandma.

I had previously read two other titles in the Katie series by James Mayhew, and I like this one best of all. (I also believe it's the first in the series, although you don't need to read them in any order to understand them.) One of the things I appreciated a lot about this book is the interaction in the beginning between Katie and her grandmother in which the latter explains the show more concept of the Impressionistic style to Katie. It's not preachy, didactic, or full of jargon, but it helps young reader to understand something about art. The book later introduces words like palettes, canvases, and portraits, which an older child may use context clues to decode or an adult could define for a younger reader. As with other titles in the series, this book ends with a brief one-page note providing more information about Impressionism as well as the specific artists and paintings featured in the story.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this book was the joyful interactions between Katie and Jean, the young boy she sees in one painting. Jean is the son of famous Impressionist painter Claude Monet, and his introduction in to the book not only provides a peer companion for Katie but also gives children an understanding that a painter is a person just like them with a family and a life outside of their canvases, rather than leaving the young readers with some broad and vague idea of a shadowy figure cloistered away somewhere doing nothing but painting all day long.

As Edgar Degas is one of my favorite artists, I of course loved the addition of one of his dancers paintings into the book. This also flowed well with the story and all of Katie's grand adventures at the museum. It was fun to see Katie interacting with two paintings in quick succession seemingly within a single frame, as many of the Impressionistic painters did travel in the same circles and paint similar scenes, each with their own unique flair.

The illustrations in this book, as with the other titles in the series, are absolutely excellent. The actual paintings are replicated wonderfully and then those backdrops and figures are added to appropriately with the new characters and scenarios imagined by the author.

All in all, I definitely recommend this title, especially if you are interested in fine art and want to introduce a bit of art history to the children in your life. But even if you or your child are not particularly interested in art, this is still a fun and fantastical romp featuring a little girl ready to explore and engage in many adventures. show less

Marvelous. Five paintings by three artists is not much, but more would be overwhelming in a book meant to introduce a small child to the idea of getting lost in a work of art. Just remember to teach your child that it's a metaphor - one mustn't really try to climb inside a frame to pick flowers!

I liked this book for two reasons. First, the illustrations in the book fit the style of the written text. Because the text deals with impressionist art specifically, the illustrations should match the style that is typically found in impressionist pieces of art. The illustrations used pastel colors and paint strokes that were not defined. With this in mind, the illustrations throughout the text matched the style of the text that focuses on impressionist art. Before Katie jumps into the art, the illustration shows the art hanging from the wall in a frame, and then goes into to show Katie inside the work of art. This helps the audience distinguish when Katie is observing the art and when she is part of the art. I also liked this book show more because the language was descriptive and detailed, providing the audience with a surplus of information to create an image in their minds. For example, the author writes, "But Katie ran for the picture frame and leapt into the museum, leaving the flowers scattered behind her" (p. 11). With this descriptive language, the audience can envision this scene and Katie's frantic movements as she jumps back into the museum and drops her flowers behind her. With this descriptive language, the audience is more engaged and can better follow along with the story. Overall, the big idea of this book is to look at the influence and importance artwork can have on people. show less

This is a cute book in which Katie takes a trip to the art museum with her grandmother, and discovers that she can enter the paintings and interact with the people inside them. The adventure culminates with a trip to Claude Monet's home (a place I've had the good fortune to visit). I read this book to my son's class last year, as part of an art lesson, and they really enjoyed it. A sweet book which does a nice job of describing the impressionists.

Genre: Fantasy, Informational
Media: Colored Pencils
Age Appropriateness: Primary, intermediate
This book talks about a little girls trip to the museum with her grandma. At first she can't see the paintings and all she sees is dots, her grandma teachers her to step back to see the picture. She then goes off to explore on her owns and goes on a series of adventures, jumping into and out of frames by famous artists such as Monet and Degas. In the end she gets her grandma the flowers. This book is a fantasy because people can't jump in and out of frames. It is also an informational book because it informs us of different artists and their pieces. There is also a section at the end of the book that tells more specific information about the show more artists. The plot is extremely important to this story. The author does a great job of keeping the story interesting and keeping the reader involved. show less

33 months - this is a different and fun way to look at art with O. I always like stories that to me seem to take an original approach. Apparently there are more Katie books so we will be checking those out from the library soon.

A little French girl steps into an impressionist painting at the museum, and finds herself in the company of the child of its painter.