Currently in casa Oct 4th

The rhyming text of this book encourages children's imaginations. (No actual "magic" is involved.) The illustrations are all reproductions of actual Matisse pieces, which are, themselves, vibrant and imaginative. (The titles of the pieces are listed at the back of the book for those of us who are less familiar with his work.) There are a couple of nude paintings in this book. They are stylized and not anatomically-correct but, of course, use your own judgment as to whether this is appropriate for the child the book is intended for. ( )

I have a few of the books in the series.

On the plus side, I really like the concept - picture books introducing famous artists to young children. What could be cooler than that?

Unfortunately, I don't like the writing that much. Prose would be perfectly suited for these pictures, but instead the author keeps trying to write it in rhyme, and it falls very flat. The whole thing seems trite, and a lot of the rhymes and meter end up sounding forced.

I'd still be buying the books, despite this, because I like the idea so much, except we've run into a new snag - they're not very well put together. By which I mean that all of the books we have in this series started to fall apart within a year, a year and a half of their purchase. They're board books, and the nieces are actually too old to "need" board books - they're not rough on the books at all. This should not be happening. The shoddy construction *will* keep me from buying more books, where awkward text wouldn't.

If these books ever get printed in paperback, or maybe as a hardcover compilation, I'll probably buy them. But I cannot recommend that anybody buy the board books. ( )