Art books for kids are the easiest way to introduce your kids to the masterpieces of fine art, right from home. If you are looking for ways to explore art history, tour museums, and celebrate art from the safety of your living room, keep reading!
Art Books For Kids
Books written for children are SO MUCH cooler. I attended design school and my art history books were a snooze-fest, so hats off to the authors out there making art history fun for everyone!
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Fine Art Children’s Books
Take museum tours with fun characters and explore the mysteries of famous works of art. There’s a whole series of books with “Katie” by James Mayhew as you join a trip to a museum or countryside with Katie, usually accompanied by her Grandma. Katie steps inside the paintings and we learn a little about:
- Renaissance: Katie and the Mona Lisa
- Post-Impressionism: Katie and the Sunflowers
- Pointillism: Katie and the Bathers (AKA Katie and the Sunday Afternoon)
- Early Modernism: Katie’s Picture Show
- Van Gogh: Katie and the Starry Night
- Renoir, Degas, Monet: Katie and the Impressionists
- Monet: Katie and the Waterlily Pond
- Velazquez, Goya, Murillo: Katie and the Spanish Princess
- Constable, Turner, Stubbs: Katie and the British Artists
Anna takes a similar trip aided by her red cloak, meeting many artists and exploring their works of art. She even gets to help paint one! Anna’s Art Adventure by Bjorn Sortland
Even Olivia gets in on the action when she visits a museum. This was our first experience with Fine Art in a book. Olivia by Ian Falconer
A great one for kids learning their alphabet is I Spy, An Alphabet in Art by Lucy Micklethwait. Look at each page of art for a specific item, like an apple for A. The list of alphabet prompts is in the back and each painting is lovely. Some lesser known pieces you’ll enjoy getting to know.
Children’s Books About Color
Color is a passion of mine and teaching my babies their colors a joy! These books are great for kids of all ages but I’ve listed them roughly in order of age.
- Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin & Eric Carle
- Blue Hat Green Hat, The OOPS Book by Sandra Boynton
- Usborne Big Book of Colors
- Dr. Seuss’s Book Of Colors {young reader}
- Pete The Cat, I Love My White Shoes, by James Dean & Eric Litwin {young reader}
- Mix It Up by Herve Tullet
- Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin
- A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
Sketch and explore along with Harold and his purple crayon. Try drawing your own adventure with your own purple, green, or orange crayon!
Great Family Reading
The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt is a fabulous story of whit and color. As you read you can have your child find each color in the crayon box, and draw a picture of items they suggest. Each subsequent book retains the same humor but is less instructive on color education until the arrival of The Crayon’s Book of Colors, which brings it all back around.
Art For Kids – Museum Tours
Google Arts and Culture has curated a list of the best online Museum tours that will allow you and your family to virtually explore works of art from over 1,200 institutions! Travel the world one gallery at a time!
Take a peek at my favorites:
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- The Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA
- Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France
Additional Art Ideas for Kids
- Party Like Picasso Art Birthday Party
- Keep Little Artists Busy – Creative Party Activities
- Simple Play-doh Birthday Party Ideas
- Melted Crayon Art Rainbow Tutorial
Harold and the purple crayon was my kids’ favorite book when they were young. I must have read that more than 100 times!
We have read it that many times too! It’s such a fun story and I love all the puns.
I love the suggestions! I think my kids would enjoy these books too!
We enjoy reading books about the topics we study and these are some of our favorites. I hope you have fun exploring art with your littles too!
What great suggestions for introducing the kids to beautiful masterpieces!
It’s so fun to read together and I love that my kids are starting to recognize some of the different masters. Thanks so much!
I adore this post, it’s so thoughtful and I love I can bring my passion to my kids!
Thank you so much! I too have a passion for Fine Art and want to make sure my kids can learn and appreciate it as they grow. It’s so nice that there are so many wonderful tools out there.