This morning I intended to write a review of a game that accompanies my newest geography book, Draw Africa. The game is one in a series of geography games by Out of the Box publishers (the same company that publishes Apples to Apples) called 10 Days in Africa. However, I looked it up on amazon.com…
Book Reviews
Mathematics as Art
“The first thing to understand,” says Paul Lockhart in A Mathematician’s Lament, “is that mathematics is an art.” He continues on to say that “Mathematics is the purest of the arts, as well as the most misunderstood.” The twenty-first-century mind has a very difficult time getting around this. Math as art? To us, math is…
A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart
While researching math books for my son this week on amazon.com, I came across a small volume by a mathematician named Paul Lockhart titled: A Mathematician’s Lament: How School Cheats us out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form. The title intrigued me and promised of good things within, so I (virtually) turned the…
Ancient History and Ancient Art
Two works of fiction that I highly recommend highlight eras in ancient history and highlight ancient works of art. It is a rare combination, but author Marjorie Cowley is a master at both engaging and teaching children. I use both these books in my art history classes and highly recommend them for any excursion into…
The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House At the end of my American Art History: Volume IV, we study two of Frank Lloyd Wright’s pieces of architecture, one of which is the Robie House, built in 1910 in Chicago near the University of Chicago. There are few children’s books on Wright, and really only one good one,…
Dog’s Night by Meredith Hooper
Back in Print! A wonderful children’s book that highlights four famous works of art is now back in print. Dog’s Night, written by Meredith Hooper and illustrated by Allan Curless and Mark Burgess, is as entertaining as it is clever. Back Where Dogs Belong The plot involves four dogs in four works of art in…
A History of US by Joy Hakim
Textbooks that are both interesting and engaging are rare and I rarely recommend them, but if you absolutely need a textbook for American History, A History of US is the only choice. Written in a narrative style, A History of US tells the history of the United States, from prehistory to the present, thoroughly and…
The Boy Who Loved to Draw: Benjamin West by Barbara Brenner
This is a sweet and interesting biography of the childhood of Benjamin West, who is often called the Father of American art. I read this to my class on Friday while they were drawing and they loved it. I didn’t hear a peep throughout the entire story. Although the illustrations are beautiful, they were not…
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If The Walls Could Talk by Jane O’Connor
When I teach classes here in San Diego, the only homework that I assign is reading. I provide 50 – 60 books per semester for my students to check out each week from my personal library. Each book is linked to a piece of art in my curriculum. I hand choose each title based on:…