A Trip to the Art Museum

Arlo’s Artra­geous Adventure!

David LaRochelle
Ster­ling Children’s Books, 2013

When Arlo’s grand­moth­er drags him to the art muse­um, he can’t imag­ine how he’ll be inter­est­ed. Some­thing odd catch­es his eye and he soon real­izes the paint­ings have things to say that sur­prise and delight him — and the read­er. Fun and quirky, with illus­tra­tions that will make you smile and flaps to lift that will reveal nuances in much the same way you dis­cov­er some­thing new in a paint­ing each time you look at it … this is a good choice to pre­pare a child for a trip to the museum.

Art Dog

Thacher Hurd
Harper­Collins, 1996

When the moon is full, Arthur Dog, secu­ri­ty guard at the Dogopo­lis Muse­um of Art becomes Art Dog, a masked artist paint­ing mas­ter­pieces. When an art heist occurs, Arthur must find the true crim­i­nals. Your read­ers will have fun rec­og­niz­ing the works of Pablo Poo­dle, Hen­ri Mutisse, and Vin­cent Van Dog.

Behind the Muse­um Door:
Poems to Cel­e­brate the Won­der of Museums

Lee Ben­nett Hop­kins, ed.
illus by Stacey Dressen-McQueen
Har­ry N. Abrams, 2007

An ide­al read-aloud to pre­pare for a  class trip, this col­lec­tion of poet­ry will be use­ful when dis­cussing art and artists. The poems are ener­getic and infor­ma­tive while Dressen-McQueen’s illus­tra­tions do an admi­ral job of visu­al­ly rep­re­sent­ing each poem.

Chas­ing Vermeer

Blue Bal­li­ett
Scholas­tic, 2004

Petra and Calder, 11-year-olds, become friends when they team up to solve the theft of a Ver­meer paint­ing which was en route to a muse­um in Chica­go, where they live. The thief leaves clues in the news­pa­per and our clever duo work hard to solve the puz­zles and mys­ter­ies that result. Your read­ers will learn about art while play­ing detective.

Dog’s Night

Mered­ith Hoop­er
illus by Alan Cur­less
Frances Lin­coln, 2006

With a set­ting at London’s Nation­al Gallery, this is a tale of that one night a year when the dogs in the museum’s paint­ings are set free to come to life and play. A good way to intro­duce young peo­ple to fine art.

Eddie Red, Under­cov­er: Mys­tery on Muse­um Mile

Mar­cia Wells, illus by Mar­cos Calo
Houghton Mif­flin Har­court, 2013

Edmund, an 11-year-old boy with a pho­to­graph­ic mem­o­ry and a tal­ent for draw­ing, is hired by the NYPD to help them look for thieves plan­ning a major art heist. Filled with humor, inter­est­ing char­ac­ters, and a lot of clues to a sat­is­fy­ing mystery.

Framed

Frank Cot­trell Boyce
Harper­Collins, 2006

When Dylan’s father leaves because their busi­ness, Snow­do­nia Oasis Auto Mar­vel, is fal­ter­ing, Dylan’s fam­i­ly tries to improve their cir­cum­stances. At the same time, paint­ings from the Nation­al Gallery are being moved to stor­age near Dylan’s Welsh town. Filled with art his­to­ry and col­or­ful, charis­mat­ic char­ac­ters, this book is sure to hook readers.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

E.L. Konigs­burg
Atheneum/Simon & Schus­ter, 1970

A clas­sic in which Clau­dia plans care­ful­ly for a week’s stay in the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art to break the monot­o­ny of her life. She invites her younger broth­er, James, because he has mon­ey. A new sculp­ture in the muse­um is pos­si­bly a mar­ble angel cre­at­ed by Michelan­ge­lo, but no one knows for cer­tain. Clau­dia and James are deter­mined to help solve the mystery.

Going to the Getty

Vivian Walsh
illus by J. Otto Sei­bold
J. Paul Get­ty Muse­um, 1997

The cre­ators of Olive, the Oth­er Rein­deer have cre­at­ed a pic­ture book that intro­duces young vis­i­tors to the Get­ty Muse­um in Los Ange­les, includ­ing art­work, gar­dens, and behind-the-scenes work spaces.

Katie and the Sunflowers

James May­hew
Orchard Books, 2001

When Katie vis­its the muse­um, it’s an adven­ture indeed! She finds she can reach into the paint­ings, such as Van Gogh’s Sun­flow­ers, while oth­er paint­ings come to life. There are a num­ber of Katie books in which she learns more about fine art, but this par­tic­u­lar title fea­tures Gau­g­in and Cezanne, the Post-Impres­sion­ists. Back mat­ter helps elu­ci­date more infor­ma­tion in a friend­ly way.

Mas­ter­piece

Elise Broach
illus by Kel­ly Mur­phy
Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt, 2008

An excel­lent mys­tery weav­ing togeth­er the world of art and the world of art theft. Mar­vin is a bee­tle who lives under the sink in James’ apart­ment. Mar­vin has a mar­velous tal­ent for draw­ing in minia­ture. So mar­velous that his draw­ings become a media sen­sa­tion … for which James receives the cred­it. Art forgery is required but the friend­ship between Mar­vin and James, nei­ther of whom can speak to the oth­er, is tested.

Matthew’s Dream

Leo Lion­ni
Ran­dom House, 1995

When Matthew the mouse goes on a field trip to the art muse­um with his class, he is over­come with the beau­ty and pow­er of the art­work hang­ing there. Inspired, he returns to his dusty and unin­spired attic and cre­ates art with things he’s nev­er rec­og­nized as hav­ing beau­ty, cre­at­ing paint­ings “filled with the shapes and col­ors of joy.”

Mrs. Brown on Exhib­it and Oth­er Muse­um Poems

Susan Katz
illus R.W. Alley
Simon & Schus­ter, 2002

A book of poet­ry is writ­ten in the children’s own voic­es about their exu­ber­ant teacher, Mrs. Brown. She loves field trips to art exhibits and oth­er exot­ic muse­ums. A good book to show the breadth of col­lec­tions encom­passed by museums.

Muse­um

Susan Verde
illus by Peter H. Reynolds
Har­ry N. Abrams, 2013

On a vis­it to the muse­um, a young girl reacts with dif­fer­ing emo­tions to each paint­ing she sees, express­ing her­self with move­ment and sound and facial expres­sions. Drawn in a car­toon style, this book will help kids move beyond that feel­ing of rev­er­ence that muse­ums some­times inspire to exam­ine the works for a per­son­al connection.

Muse­um ABC

New York Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art
Lit­tle Brown, 2002

An alpha­bet book intro­duc­ing chil­dren to the col­lec­tion of the New York Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art, includ­ing Roy Lichtenstein’s Red Apple and Degas’ bal­leri­nas. It works well as a dis­cus­sion starter about art and as a guide to the museum’s treasures.

Muse­um Book: a Guide to Strange and Won­der­ful Collections

Jan Mark
illus Richard Hol­land
Chron­i­cle Books, 2007

There are anec­dotes, his­tor­i­cal facts, and invi­ta­tions galore in this book to look at muse­ums from dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives. Top-notch.

Muse­um Trip

Bar­bara Lehmann
Houghton Mif­flin Har­court, 2006

When a boy gets sep­a­rat­ed from his class on a field trip to a muse­um, won­drous things hap­pen when he stops to tie his shoe and gets sep­a­rat­ed from his class. He goes on an adven­ture that will have read­ers ask­ing, “Is that real?” Well, look for clues in the illus­tra­tions. It’s a word­less book, so your chil­dren will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to tell the sto­ry in their own way.

Nor­man the Doorman

Don Free­man
Pen­guin, 1959

In a book that has not aged, a dor­mouse is a door­man at the Majes­tic Muse­um of Art. He leads tours of small crea­tures to mar­vel in the paint­ings and sculp­tures stored in the museum’s base­ment. Inspired by a com­pe­ti­tion, Nor­man cre­ates his own entry out of mouse­traps set to catch him by the Muse­um guard. Filled with puns both ver­bal and visu­al, this is a must-have for your collection.

Seen Art?

Jon Sci­esz­ka
illus by Lane Smith
Viking Books, 2005

In a quirky play on words, the nar­ra­tor is look­ing for his friend Art, but he’s direct­ed to the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art by a lady who thinks he’s look­ing for … art. While con­tin­u­ing to look for his friend, he encoun­ters paint­ings by Van Gogh, Licht­en­stein, Matisse, Klee, and more. A humor­ous way to approach fine art.

Shape Game

Antho­ny Browne
Far­rar Straus Giroux, 2003

In an inspi­ra­tional, auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal pic­ture book, Antho­ny Browne shares his family’s vis­it to the Tate Muse­um in Lon­don that changed his way of look­ing at art. He exam­ines actu­al paint­ings hang­ing in the Tate in a man­ner that encour­ages the read­er to look more inten­tion­al­ly at art. The Shape Game is a fam­i­ly tra­di­tion, one that Anthony’s moth­er shares with him on the way home from the museum.

Speed­ing Down the Spi­ral: an Art­ful Adventure

Deb­o­rah Good­man Davis
illus by Sophy Naess
Life in Print, 2012

A some­what longer pic­ture book that frames a look at art­work in the Guggen­heim Muse­um in New York City with a vis­it by a bored girl, her father, and her baby broth­er in a stroller. When the stroller gets away from her and heads down the spi­ral, a group of peo­ple give chase … and look at the art­work along the way!

Squeak­ing of Art: the Mice Go to the Museum

Mon­i­ca Welling­ton
Dut­ton, 2000

Using repro­duc­tions that look some­what like the orig­i­nal works of art, this book teach­es the vocab­u­lary and con­cepts that are so help­ful when one vis­its a museum.

Under the Egg

Lau­ra Marx Fitzger­ald
Dial Books, 2014

In this nov­el, 13-year-old Theo inher­its a paint­ing after her grand­fa­ther dies unex­pect­ed­ly. Iso­lat­ed by pover­ty and the lack of a respon­si­ble adult, Theo gains friends as she attempts to fig­ure out if the paint­ing is one of Raphael’s and why her grand­fa­ther had it. It’s a charm­ing book with a riv­et­ing mys­tery and fast-paced action.

Vis­it­ing the Art Museum

Lau­rene Kras­ny Brown
illus by Marc Brown
Dut­ton, 1986

When a young fam­i­ly goes to a muse­um, there is a great deal of com­plain­ing and expec­ta­tions of bore­dom. Instead they are drawn in by work rang­ing from Renoir, Pol­lack, Cezanne, Picas­so, and Warhol. Repro­duc­tions by Marc Brown of those famous paint­ings make this book acces­si­ble by younger and old­er children.

You Can’t Take a Bal­loon Into the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum

Jacque­line P. Weitz­man
illus by Robin Preiss Glass­er
Dial Books, 1998

When a young girl and her grand­moth­er vis­it the muse­um, the guard tells them she can’t take her yel­low bal­loon in with her. He ties it to a rail­ing. The two muse­um vis­i­tors view works of wart while the yel­low bal­loon is untied by a pigeon to float through and explore New York City, often in par­al­lel adventures.