Review Detail

Pippin is a dog who sets out to paint a self-portrait, but he needs to figure out what his artistic style will be. Pippin visits many friends who paint self-portraits influenced by different artists and their styles. None of those specific styles feels right to Pippin. By staying true to his artistic voice, Pippin was able to complete his self-portrait and his showing was a success.

You can't have a book about art and not have amazing illustrations to accompany it. In particular, I enjoyed the illustrations of Van Gogh and Degas's work. They were easily recognizable, yet still had the illustrator's artistic voice. In the book, young artists are exposed to art vocabulary such as self-portrait and what a medium is, and can also see works from Van Gogh, Mattise, Picasso, and other fantastic artists. Each artist featured in the story is described in more detail on a two-page spread at the end of the book.

The book is a wonderful way to introduce elementary school-aged children to artists and art.