Book Descriptions
for Faces, Places, and Inner Spaces by Jean Sousa
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Jean Sousa offers a virtual museum trip in a book that invites readers to gaze upon many different types of art found in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Sousa uses the idea of faces, places, and inner spaces as a way to organize this bold and engaging volume in which she offers a commentary on each handsomely reproduced work. She explores ideas about what each work represents, often honing in on the way the artists’ vision is represented in small details. Her narrative addresses readers directly, inviting them to think about the choices each artist made as she explores the many ways they convey ideas in a work. The art discussed includes include paintings, sculpture, pottery, furniture, and other pieces from across centuries and cultures. (Ages 8–14)
CCBC Choices 2007 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2007. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
In the faces found in art (portraits, self-portraits, masks, etc.), readers discover how people from different cultures and times saw themselves. By looking at landscapes and cityscapes, readers become aware of everyday life as well as times from the past that don't exist anymore as well as a glimpse of the future. Among the works included are an African mask, a West Mexican clay-pole dance scene, a Hindu sculpture, a Chinese screen, a Japanese actor print, as well as Surreal objects by Cornell, paintings by Van Gogh, Miro, and others. This work includes a 'mirror' so kids can look at and discuss their own face and an acetate sheet bound in to use for other activities.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.