ART & MUSIC: Our Favorite Picture Book Read-alouds

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I read dozens of picture books every month with my three children (12, 10, 8). This list includes the very best of the picture books related to art and music that we have read together. While all of the books below are wonderful, I have starred (*) those books that were special favorites of all four of us. These starred books were picture books we checked out again and again from the library, or eventually purchased for ourselves, and are not to be missed. We hope you enjoy all of these books as much as we have!

This list is continually updated (newest books at the top of each section). 


Picture Books about Art and Artists
While I am reading aloud a textier book about an artist, I often let my children browse large volumes of the artist's artwork checked out from the library (from adult section, not children's). I always preview artwork first to make sure I am comfortable with content, and so I am prepared for my kids' reactions and questions. 

Georgia O'Keeffe

These were all excellent and different enough that you could really read them all. We read one or two a week for over a month. The last three listed are more comprehensive biographies, so space those out a bit. We read one at the beginning, one at the end, and one in the middle.

• Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keeffe Painted What She Pleased
• My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter
• Through Georgia's Eyes
• Georgia Rises: A Day in the Life of Georgia O'Keeffe*
• Georgia's Bones
• Georgia O'Keeffe (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)
• The Met Georgia O'Keeffe: She saw the world in a flower (What the Artist Saw)*
• Georgia O'Keeffe by Alix Wood

Velazquez

• Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (Art for Children)
• La Princesa y el Pintor
• Diego Velázquez by Mike Venezia

Cezanne

• Cezanne by Mike Venezia
• Paul Cezanne (Life and Work Of...) by Sean Connolly, Paul Connolly
• Cezanne's Parrot

Leonardo da Vinci

• Leonardo by Diane Stanley*
• The Stolen Smile*
• Leonardo's Horse

Giotto

• Giotto (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia
• A Boy Named Giotto
• The Nativity (illustrated with Giotto's paintings)
• The Glorious Impossible (illustrated with Giotto's paintings)

Homer

• Winslow Homer (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia

Monet 

• Mornings with Monet*
• Monet Paints a Day
• Monet (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia
• Claude Monet: The Painter Who Stopped the Trains*
• The Garden of Monsieur Monet

Cassatt

• Mary Cassatt (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)* - also available as a DVD that includes some extra info
• Baby Loves (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
• Mary Cassatt (World's Greatest Artists)
• Mary Cassatt: Family Pictures (Smart About Art)* - written as a child's report about Cassatt; highly accessible yet full of interesting details
• Suzette and the Puppy

Degas

• Edgar Degas: Paintings That Dance (Smart About Art) - written as a child's report about Degas, highly accessible yet full of interesting details
• Edgar Degas (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists)
• What Degas Saw*

Sargent 

• John Singer Sargent: The Life of an Artist (Artist Biographies)
• Age of Elegance (a little volume that my kids enjoyed browsing while I read the biography)

Miscellaneous Artists

These are books we enjoyed about individual artists without doing a full-blown artist study.

• The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art 
• Libba
• Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave
• Through the Window: Views of Marc Chagall's Life and Art
• Durer (Art for Children)

General

• Museum 123 (Met)
• Museum ABC (Met)
• You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum* (wordless and wonderful)
• The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux
• Can You Find It?: Search and Discover More Than 150 Details in 19 Works of Art - like Where's Waldo with works of art, highly appealing to kids
• Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children's History of Art
• Mike Venezia's series Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists
  

Picture books about creativity and artistic expression

• Ish
• Word Collector*

Picture Books about Music and Musicians
Bach

• Becoming Bach
• Mr. Bach Comes to Call (DVD)

Beethoven

• The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven*
• The Heroic Symphony*
• Beethoven Lives Upstairs (available as CD and DVD as well)
• Ludwig van Beethoven (First Discovery: Music) - includes CD that is an audiobook interspersed with short excerpts from Beethoven's works

Chopin

• Frederic Chopin (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)
• Frederic Chopin (First Discovery: Music)  - includes CD that is an audiobook interspersed with short excerpts from Beethoven's works

Handel

• George Handel (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)*
• Handel: Who Knew What He Wanted
• Hallelujah Handel (also available as CD)

Mozart

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)*
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (First Discovery: Music)
• Mozart: The Wonder Child*

Tchaikovsky

• Peter Tchaikovsky (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)*
• Tchaikovsky Discovers America (also available as dramatized CD)

Miscellaneous Composers and Musicians

These are books we enjoyed about individual composers and musicians without doing a full-blown composer study.

• Nina by Traci Todd, Christian Robinson (about jazz singer and pianist Nina Simone)
• Dark Was the Night (about Blind Willie Johnson)
• Song in a Rainstorm (about Thomas Wiggins)
• Before There Was Mozart (about musician and composer Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George)

General

• Mike Venezia's series Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers
• Lives of the Musicians
• Listen to the Birds: An Introduction to Classical Music*
• Simply Fantastic: An Introduction to Classical Music*
• Music of Life (about Bartolomeo Cristofori and the invention of the modern piano)
• The Magic Flute by Chris Raschka (retelling and illustration of one of the most child-friendly operas)

Picture books that illustrate a song 

Text of book is taken from the lyrics of a song. This is one of my favorite kinds of picture books!

• Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night
• Over the River and Through the Wood
• Froggy Went A-Courtin'
• Oh, A-Hunting We Will Go
• Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee
• There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly
• Rosemary Wells collection of song board books

All our favorite picture book read-alouds by subject: 

• History & Social Science Picture Books (includes biography) 
• Math Picture Books
• Science & Nature Picture Books
• Poetry & Shakespeare Picture Books
• Art & Music Picture Books
• Audiobooks for the Whole Family

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