The Magical Garden of Claude Monet (Anholt's Artists Books For Children)

This is such a cute and sweet story! I bought it as part of our artist study for my daughter's first grade curriculum. We've read it several times, and although it doesn't go in depth to Monet's biography as part of the story, it gives a very general overview of his love of gardening, and his work as an artist. There is a one page biography at the back, which I paraphrased for my children. I hope to get more of these books in the future!

I can't say enough good about this series. It is a creative way to introduce kids to these artists. They are written to be kids stories and entertain while throwing in some information about who the artist is, to show the artists' general style and introduce some specific works by the artist. My daughter is 5. She soaks this stuff in. I think she would have been able to be as receptive to the stories at age 4 and maybe just earlier than that but it would have been pushing the envelope. I suspect she will enjoy the stories for another couple years.

It has lead us to google some of the actual artists' works. My daughter now wants to find some museums that have some of the pieces that are addressed in the books.

The story goes from a girl meeting claude monet, thinking he is a gardner (A STRANGER) - to him holding the girl in a greenhouse while she plants seeds (the story just jumps with no explanation). How did she get so close to him to trust him so quickly? why would she let a stranger hold her? it is sending a terrible message.

I gave this as a gift to a 9 year old girl who loves art. We had a great time reading the book together. She especially loved the colors in the book as did I. The colorful fold-out of Monet's water garden is very nice.

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!

Purchased this for our 4 year old daughter when we were thinking about going to France and to visit Monet's garden. She loves the book and can't wait to see Monet's garden in real life :)

Magical book about a magical garden. My 6 year old loved it and it makes her excited about going to Giverny

This is a great story, also includes a fantastic bio in the back. Beautifully colored pictures, this really opens up your children to learning more about the greatest impressionists.

A fabulous book to introduce your child to a famous artist at their level. My 6 year old and I have enjoyed it for two years now and she still enjoys reading the book. She especially enjoys the beautiful paintings. I am going to buy some more of the artist series.

We loved this book and have already read it several times and are now drawing our own versions of some of the scenes, lol. I felt the water illustrations could have used more blues and that two illustrations were a bit off - one is a landscape scene which is a bit of a green and brown muddy mess and the other is the fold out water scene which is done in a purple gray and looks like it is occuring at night instead of on a summer's day - but I think I was the only one who noticed, lol. Setting aside my nitpicking, Mr. Anholt really pulled off the look and feel of Monet's art in his illustrations - just wonderful. This simple story of a girl, a dog, an artist and a beautiful day in a magical garden, combined with the lovely illustrations was just about perfect. This artist and children series is a brilliant concept and I will definitely look for more of them. Loved the short bio on Monet too; very interesting and we ended up reading more on Wikipedia. Also love the large format of this book - really brings out beauty and detail of illustrations. I purchased usesd like new from Half-Price Bookstore and the book arrived quickly and in perfect condition - thanks!