Count Monet's Lilies (touch and feel art book)

While it can be a challenge to find beautiful children's illustrations you are generally safe with Caldecott books. What about baby though? There are some marvelous board books if you search. I will be featuring some favorites as F makes her way through toddlerdom.

For her birthday we added to our small collection of Touch The Art books by Julie Appel.

Yes, that's right. Touch and art in a single sentence.

If you are like me you want your child exposed to all that is beautiful.

Babies love to touch with their fingers and mouths.

Usually that rules out fine art.

Not with this series.

Each page has a piece of artwork from whatever era the particular volume is focused. Undrneath in small print is the title of the painting, the name of the artist, and museum location. On the opposing page is a charming little rhyme describing the painting and encouraging the toddler to touch. Count Monet's Lilies also teaches counting from 1-9.

Touch what exactly? Depends on the painting. In this volume you can smell fruit, scratch sandpaper sand on a seashore, pull on a ribbon, and more.

Little F has two pages in particular she loves. She flips back and forth between Snap The Whip (Winslow Homer) and Fishing Boats On The Beach (Vincent Van Gogh). We have developed a funny little game too. First she will feel it, then she grabs my fingers to make me feel it too. We go back and forth feeling these two paintings for several minutes at a time.

I hope you will check out this and the other Touch The Art books. The are a treasure that should be in more home libraries.