Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules: Breaking All the Rules (Smart About Art)

We love this series. Our first purchase was Matisse, Drawing with scissors. My 5 year old had me read it to her again and again. She later created her own Matisse inspired creation. My oldest is 9 and he reads these on his own. They love learning about artists and these are great introductions. The style (a young student writing a book report for the teacher) makes it perfect for kids to read. Colourful and fun to read.

Excelente opción para niños!

Homeschooling art has been one of my greatest homeschool successes. Specifically, we instituted “Artist of the Month” as part of our homeschool curriculum. Information learned stayed learned (always a victory).First, I bought the "Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists" book about our Artist of the Month. We own 22 of these. They are uniformly excellent. Images featuring the artist’s most famous work are interspersed with the artist’s life story.Second, I bought poster board and those little Dover booklets of postcards featuring art by our Artist of the Month (where available - and Dover does carry a lot of them). I let the kids go to town on making a poster of the Artist of the Month using these supplies. The important point here was process not product, to get them to interact with the images, not to get them to produce the perfect poster. This poster would then be on display throughout the month.(Previous months’ posters landed under my daughter’s bed. One day, she showed one of these posters to a friend. I heard from the mom shortly thereafter. “Raquel says your daughter has pictures of naked ladies under her bed?” Picasso, I think.)Third, I bought more books!We were fond of the "Smart About Art" series. Each book also features just one artist. We have 8 of those. These books are at a slightly higher reading level than the "Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists" books, but only very slightly. Colorful pages are even more eye popping than those in the "Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists" series.For Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci, the kids really liked the Ibi Lepscky books. The titles are the same as the authors’ names. The Picasso book is a particular favorite because of an image in which Picasso, devoid of art supplies as a child, paints his younger sister with egg yolk just before the family is due to leave for church services.Storybooks featuring the artists were always a big hit. I can specifically recommend the following to round out your curriculum:Laurence Anholt’s books feature a story in which the artist interacts with a child. There are vibrant images, but I wouldn’t count on these books alone to provide an education about any one artists. The books we own and love include:- Matisse: The King of Color- Cezanne and the Apple Boy- Degas and the Little Dancer- Camille and the Sunflowers- Leonardo and the Flying Boy- Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail- The Magical Garden of Claude MonetAlso consider Anholt’s marvelous book Anholt’s Artists Activity Book.James Mayhew wrote an excellent series in which our girl Katie interacts not with the artists but with the subjects of the paintings! Outstanding storytelling, clever images. Again, these books are a great supplement to a homeschool art curriculum, but I would not use them as stand alone books. We own and love these:- Katie and the Sunflowers- Katie and the Mona Lisa- Katie and the British Artists- Katie and the Starry Night- Katie and the Spanish Princess- Katie Meets the ImpressionistsGood Luck and Happy Homeschooling!

I am a first grade teacher in a high poverty school, and I teach an art and artists unit every year in order to provide my students with exposure to the arts. I find that incorporating art and art history into my daily Common Core lesson plans not only deepens and enriches learning, but helps students make important cross-curricular connections.Anyway, I was looking for books to introduce the various masters to my students. I needed something clear, concise, and high-interest with lots of colorful pictures. (It's really gotta be something special to hold the attention of most first graders!:)). I browsed on Amazon and came across this series. The books looked like the perfect fit for what I needed, so I ordered several- Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh- and let me tell you, this is one of the best purchases I have made for my classroom! These books are amazing on so many levels. First, each book is written as a book report completed by a student. There is a brief note from the student at the beginning of the book that tells why he or she chose the particular artist to write his or her report on. My students never fail to be intrigued with the idea that a child, a student like themselves wrote the book. So, from the very start of our artist study, I am already having students ask if they can write about an artist too. If you are a teacher, you know that this kind of motivation is PRICELESS! Secondly, Throughout each book, child drawn pictures containing funny little observations about the artist accompany pictures of the artist's works. My students love these and want to pause to really examine and discuss them. The author draws comparisons and makes connections from his or her life to that of the artist. Making text -to self connections is an important reading comprehension skill , and these books model the process perfectly without being "teachy," which naturally leads students to make their own connections to the text and to the author and/or artist. Again-PRICELESS! Finally, the biographical information is detailed without being heavy or overly wordy. The author personalizes the artist in a way that makes children want to keep learning about him or her. This often leads to some amazing classroom discussions and some awesome exhibitions of higher-order and critical thinking.I have used these books along with class created anchor charts to teach questioning, text-text compare/contrast, inferring, making connections, learning from illustrations vs. learning from text, etc. The possibilities are endless! If it sounds like I am gushing, it's because I AM! These books are simply amazing. Perhaps my favorite thing about the series is that students don't forget what they learned from them. The information in these books stays with them. About five or six months after we completed our main artists study, my students were painting flower pots for Mother's Day. One of my students commented on her fellow classmate's pot, saying,"I love your use of color on that. It is very beautiful." to which the other child replied, "Thank you. I have painted it in the style of Henri Matisse. See the designs here around the edge? Don't they remind you of some of his paper cut-outs?" She agreed that they did. That and other similar conversations have me sold for life. I hope these never go out of print. In fact, I am hoping to see more artists covered. I will buy every book I can find in this amazing series.

The book has a clever premise as a child's report on Picasso. Although the discussion of Picasso's personal life just states the facts, I think it was a little too mature for my six and eight year old as it mentions Picasso's friends suicide and love relationships. just be warned if you are not prepared to discuss these topics with your child.

It's a pretty good introduction to Picasso. The book is more like a biography, touching only lightly on his artwork and the importance of it on society. There is talk of suicide, I know it's a part of life...... But My kids are a bit young. I would have liked it more if I didn't need to delve into that during our art learning time.

I would give this 10 stars if I could. You would be doing yourself and your children a favor by purchasing this! I learned more than what I thought I knew, and my 8 year old ate it up. I love that this book can connect with adults and children alike. A must buy for anyone wanting to expand their children's knowledge of an incredible painter!

I am now a true fan of True Kelley, author and illustrator of "Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules." Instead of presenting information about Picasso--his life and works--she gives the reader/viewer a new way of looking at art. This book is written as a school project/report by a student.Simon Packard is a student in Ms. Brandt's class, whose letter opens this book. The unit on famous artists is almost over and the students now must close the unit with a report on their assigned artist. Simon's twin brother chose Monet, Simon chose Picasso because his parents LOVE his art and have books and prints in every room in the house.What a clever way to present the life and art of Pablo Picasso--through the eyes and pen of a student (whose age or grade is not disclosed). The book is his report/project, making this (to me) a definite plus in acquiring not only this book, but also all the other books in this series Smart About Art.Whether you like or dislike Picasso's art will become irrelevant. What this book presents is a real feel for the man and his art and how and why the two developed. The book is a combination of narrative and art, plus the student/writer's evaluation of the two as the narrative unfolds. For example, Simon presents the Blue Period, a reason for it, and his own reaction through his painting of his cat who died (a "blue" painting).One of my favorite sections was a two-page history of Picasso's wives and girlfriends simply presented with no ugly history. Another favorite is the next to last page. Simon tells how old Picasso was when he died (91) and how many works of art he created (over 50,000). But the stand-out is Simon's illustrating showing Picasso leaping through the air singing "To draw you must close your eyes and sing." Whether Picasso actually said this or Simon created it, this sentence wonderfully summarizes Picasso's modus operandi.This is a book definitely worth adding to a school or public library for children, probably for ages 9-13.There is a student in my school in the fourth grade who loves Picasso. His teacher made a display of some artwork concluding a Native American unit. Each child created a cactus with flowers. Thomas's was distorted. I told him his cactus looked like Cubism. His reply blew me away: "That's what it is supposed to be." I have been giving him books on artists since then (I'm the librarian). Wow! Like Simon's "art report" on Picasso, one never knows what students are capable of until they do it!

Very disappointed... I bought this to use with younger elementary but couldn't use it at school because of nude paintings that were on several pages. It's very informational and the style of writing is great, I just would have chosen to feature different pieces of art.

Great book to help young artists understand Picasso and his world.

As with another version I purchased, I was very disappointed. The concept was good, so I bought two, but the actual product was on the boring side. I don't see this capturing a child's interest.

Love this book and all the interesting info shared in it

Really love this learning tool for my grandchildren. they are learning to appreciate art and look forward to the rest of the series.

i used this to start a picasso unit with my 2nd and 3rd graders. they loved it! it was interesting and engaging and it didn't dumb things down for them. great way to start the project!

Another book worth purchasing on Amazon is 'And Picasso Painted Guernica'. It is a large format book and contains many photos of a number of his works. A great teaching resource. I will certainly be using it in my elementary classroom. Perfect for grades 2-6.