Anholt’s Artist Series by Laurence Anholt: A Book Series Review

Today I want to share another book series that I love: Laurence Anholt’s Artist Series. Just like James Mayhew’s Katie books, these books are a great way to introduce your children to great artists.

Anholt’s Artist Series

I currently have 6 in my collection and love them all. These are the titles currently available:

• Camille and the Sunflowers
• Degas and the Little Dancer
• The Magical Garden of Claude Monet
• Leonardo and the Flying Boy
• Picasso and the Girl With a Ponytail
• Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World
• Cezanne and the Apple Boy
• Matisse, King of Colour

I’m only missing Degas, Frida and Cezanne. (And I absolutely need to have the Frida one!)

Meet the Artists

In Laurence Anholt’s artist books, you’ll get to know more about well-known artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso and more. Learn how things were like back then and find out where they got inspiration for some of their most famous works.

Like I mentioned earlier, they are similar in a way to James Mayhew’s Katie books. But while the Katie books focus on different famous paintings, Laurence Anholt’s Artist Books focus on the artist themselves.

Based on an Actual Encounter

What’s so interesting about these books is that each of the stories have been well-researched and based on an actual encounter of the artist with a child! Because of that, the stories help the readers see these iconic artists in a more personal way.

Dive into their world

Imagine how the world must have looked like to these artists. I love how, on each of the books, the readers are shown how the artists took great inspiration from their surroundings.

If you can’t go to Giverny, France to visit Monet’s garden in real life for example, settle for this in the meantime. In the Magical Garden of Claude Monet, Laurence Anholt takes his readers on a trip down the garden that has inspired Monet for many of his works.

Warning: There are “sad parts”

I thought this may be worth mentioning because my eldest son is averse to any story with what he calls “sad parts” (stories with conflict or where kids get lost/are crying, etc.) All the books in the series have serious sad parts even though they all have happy endings.

Like on one story, the child gets into an accident. On another, the child looses something she loves. Because of this, there was a time when Luke didn’t want to revisit any of the stories.

Perhaps this is something you may want to take note of if you plan on reading it to younger kids.

Overall

Overall, this is a wonderful series. I recommend supplementing these books with photos or prints of the actual paintings. It would be nice to study each painting in depth with your kids after. I’m sure they’ll be very interested to see what the real paintings look like and they’ll be interested to know more about the stories of these famous places and artists.

I know this, because after reading Monet’s story, my 4 year old wanted to go to Giverny immediately! 😉

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