Nonfiction Monday: The Art of Freedom
Today’s review is on the book The Art of Freedom: How Artists See America by Bob Raczka. It is a timely choice. Tomorrow we honor the veteran’s of our country who have protected our precious freedoms.
In the world of school, where much focus is on state assessments and students starved for art, this book arrived in my mail. Raczka has selected paintings, photographs, and sculptures depicting many views of America to share with kids of all ages.
The text is simple: “America is… Such examples include “America is an idea” with the infamous painting, “The Declaration of Independence” by John Trumball. “America is baseball” combined with Samuel Anderson Robb’s sculpture, “Baseball Player”, and “America is the open road.” is depicted by the Ansel Adams photo, “Desert Road”.
There is an appendix providing information about each painting, photograph, and sculpture.
The book lends itself easily to great discussions about art and visual literacy. It will be a fabulous resource for my staff and “Art Friend” volunteer. I believe it will be a hit among students as well because of the simple text and the rich illustrations.
Book: The Art of Freedom: How Artists See America
Author/Illustrator: Bob Raczka
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Date Published: 2008
Pages: 32 pages
Grade: K-5
ISBN: 978-0-8225-7508-5
Source of Book: Publisher sent for CYBILS consideration.
Head over to Picture Book of the Day to see what else is available this week.
Happy Reading.
MsMac
November 10th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
[...] 1. Picture Book of the Day (Sharks) 2. JOMB (The Unknown Soldier) 3. JOMB (A Bear in War) 4. Lori Calabrese Writes (Dirt on Their Skirts) 5. Abby the Librarian (Mars and the Search for Life) 6. Chicken Spaghetti (Painting the Wild Frontier) 7. ACPL Mock Sibert (Reading List #3) 8. MsMac [...]
November 10th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Your rerview makes me want to go to the library and check this book out. It sounds wonderful. Thanks for the post!
November 10th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I loved the fact that sculptures, monuments and photographs were used in addition to paintings to support the text.
I’ll admit that after the pages on baseball and jazz I was so looking for apple pie!
I think it would be interesting to share this with secondary students studying art and art history and ask them what works they might have chosen instead.