Book Review: Maisy Goes to the Museum by Lucy Cousins

There are not many museum books for the youngest of readers.  This one is one of the few I've seen for toddlers and preschoolers.  Even if it weren't one of the only, it'd still be a great read as a most simple and delightful approach to the museum experience for very young children. 

 Maisy Goes to the Museum by Lucy Cousins

3-year-old:  And my favorite part was the part with Charley and about the animals.

5-year-old:  My favorite part of that book is the part with the elephant named Eddie.  My other favorite part of the book was when the squirrel dressed up like a knight.  Hey, we’ve seen a woolly mammoth like that one they saw at the museum!

Mommy:  We are well familiar with the character Maisy and her friends from their other sweet stories.  I was excited to see their adventure at the museum.  The museum itself is a amalgamation of many types of museum—natural history, science, history, the zoo, a children’s museum.  A couple of the characters find themselves reflected (in a manner of speaking) in the exhibits.  For example, the elephant “looks and looks at the woolly mammoth” as we might look and look at images of people from long ago.  This is by far one of the best very, very beginner books about museums.  The bold, bright pictures are perfect for the youngest reader, as is the minimal text.  Even my baby was entranced by the book! 

probably best for children 9 or 12 months+

Book Review: Museum Shapes (the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Museum Shapes (the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

3-year-old:  I liked the whole entire thing of the museum.

5-year-old:  My favorite part was all the shapes.  I liked all the shapes and I liked all the pictures and I liked the whole entire book.

Mommy:  This take on a toddler/preschooler basic subject—ABC, numbers, colors, shapes, and the like—is just right.  I love how interactive it is, asking questions (with an image for a hint!) then waiting to turn the page before giving the answer with more examples from works of art in the Museum’s collection.  You can read this with children who are anywhere on the spectrum of learning shapes—from first learning the lines and names of shapes to already confident and ready to show-off their expertise. 

We borrowed this book from the library (you can see the scanning code in the picture!) but I’m pretty sure it will be making its way into my permanent children’s book collection soon.  And that’s the highest compliment I can pay.

Also, this book sparked a “tips and tricks” adventure—with a friend!—that will be appearing shortly!

Most enjoyed by children 12 months and up 

(although if they have a board book version I would bump it much younger!)

 

Done any good museum book reading lately?  I'm currently in the middle of one about a museum heist that I'll share my thoughts on here at some point.  It's for older elementary school age children and older, though I'm enjoying it enough that I'm thinking I may read it aloud chapter by chapter to my boys.  I'd love to hear what you're reading and what you think about the ideas presented.  (Museum related or not!)

Book Review: How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland

We're still on a dinosaur kick around here.  Actually, when are we not loving dinos?  We have been especially interested in all things large and skeletal and big-print making creatures since spring break a few weeks ago when we drove out to western Mass to see some real dinosaur footprints in situ.  (More about that adventure later!)  For now, suffice it to say it was awesome.  Our museum book this week fit right along with our talks about how things like dinosaurs get to museums and what happens along the way.  So without further ado we present our thoughts on:

How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland

3-year-old:  My favorite part of the dinosaur going to the museum book was when the guy [security guard] was going to fall over the bones.

5-year-old:  I have wondered at a museum how a dinosaur gets there.  My favorite part was when the dinosaur hunter found the bone.  And that’s it.  What?  Don’t write that!  Mommy:  So next time we go to the museum what are you going to remember about this book?  5-year-old:  Goo-goo.  (Silly giggles.  I include it because he checks on me to make sure I'm writing exactly what he says.)  That they [dinosaur skeletons] were really dug out by the paleontologist.  And it [the diplodocus] was really broken up after it died. 

Mommy:  Like all of Jessie Hartland museum books, this one is a treat!  I learned so much myself reading this with my boys!  Get ready for a longer read than perhaps most preschoolers are used to, but with the repetition my boys stayed engaged.  By the end of the “house that jack built” type expanding and repeating story my boys were filling in the pauses I gave them.  The vocabulary is fun for an adult to read out loud yet the content simple enough—with wonderful illustrations!—that my kids were able to follow along with the process of getting those dino bones to the museum. 

My five year old was so taken with the book that he wanted to read the extra info at the back of the book, but my three year old slid off my lap and started rummaging for another new story to read.  (That’s par the course around here.  Just including that bit as a guide for you checking out this book for your own read or with children.)

(probably best for children 4+)

Book Review: My Visit to the Dinosaurs by Aliki

My Visit to the Dinosaurs by Aliki

3:  I loved to see the KING of the dinosaurs.  I like the T-Rex. 

5:  My favorite part is when I saw the T-Rex.   I’ve seen bones stuck together with wire like the ones in the book.

M:  This book is a little bit old fashioned and I imagine a tad out of date of the current research on dinosaurs.  I’m no expert on dinosaurs, however, so I’m not sure how exact and up-to-date or not the information is.  Overall it seemed mostly accurate according to my knowledge.   The illustrations are pleasant, in any case, and the child’s reaction natural to a new museum experience.  At first curious but a little wary, at the end confident.  The book begins and ends in a dinosaur museum with dinosaur skeletons exhibited, but each dinosaur is highlighted with an illustration as the artist imagines the dinosaur would have looked in life.

Probably enjoyed most by children 4 and up

An additional dinosaur (though not museum-related, per se) book we’ve found and loved is I Am a Tyrannosaurus by Anna Grossnickle Hines.  We first found this book a year or so ago in the methodical way I find most of my books at the library: I follow my toddler around and pick up the books they toss off the shelf and onto the floor.  I Am a Tyrannosaurus shows a child pretending to be various dinosaurs and the illustrations are charming (I’m a sucker for kids in rain boots ala Christopher Robin).  It’s easy to mimic the actions and sounds to pretend to be the dinosaur as well.

Enjoyed by children 18 months and up

Book Review: Visiting the Art Museum by Laurene Krasney Brown and Marc Brown

Visiting the Art Museum by Laurene Krasney Brown and Marc Brown

Mommy: This is one of the first museum books we acquired and it remains a favorite.  I appreciate the lively and quite realistic family romp through an art museum.  Each character has a wonderful personality--both members of the main family and the other visitors we meet while meandering through the galleries.  While the story is told through cartoonish drawings, the artworks are represented true to life.  The story is told through bubble quotes, but I find my children and I fill in the narration with our own observations and commentary.  At the end of the book are more details on each of the galleries and artworks featured, as well as great tips for visiting the museum with a family group.

5-year-old:  I liked when the dad was pulling the kid away from the TV because they were going to the museum.  And at the museum when the girl said she had to go to the bathroom.  Sometimes that happens to us at the museum.  I liked the part with the costume and the mummy.  I have another favorite part—I liked the part with the naked Frisbee-er.

3-year-old:  Yeah, I liked the part when they saw the shark picture like we have at our museum.  

(The Mommy will insert context to the three-year-old's commentary:  "our museum" is the MFA Boston where we go several times a month and "the shark picture" is Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley.  There are three versions of this painting.  The original (of three) is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the third is in the American Art wing at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  For more on this painting and its story see the National Gallery's informative page here.  And I guarantee that this shark painting will make other appearances in the future.  My boys are obsessed and fascinated by it!)

probably enjoyed most by children ages 3+