Teach Kids about Art with Katie’s Picture Show by James Mayhew
Integrate art and literacy with James Mayhew’s terrific books about Katie, a girl who can step inside paintings. These beautifully illustrated books bring masterpieces to life.
Books in the series, all available at Amazon.com:
Katie’s Picture Show: This is the book that started it all. Katie visits London’s National Gallery, where five famous masterpieces come to life.
Katie and the Starry Night: The stars are falling out of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night! Can Katie save the day, er, night?
Katie Meets The Impressionists: Katie meets Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Katie and the Waterlily Pond: A Magical Journey Through Five Monet Masterpieces: An art competition inspires Katie to step into Monet’s masterpieces. Can she learn how to create a winning entry?
Katie and the Sunflowers: Katie explores post-Impressionst masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Paul Cezanne.
Katie and the Spanish Princess: This one’s about the pride of Spain, Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez.
Katie and the Bathers: Pointilist art comes alive for Katie. She cools down with the bathers—but floods the gallery! What now?
Katie and the British Artists: Katie has a magical art adventure exploring masterpieces by Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Katie and the Mona Lisa: Katie tries to cheer La Giaconda up—with disastrous results!
Teaching ideas:
- Choose a masterpiece and imagine what would happen if Katie stepped into it.
- Learn more about each masterpiece Katie encounters.
- Write or discuss alternate adventures for Katie.
- Write a letter to Katie. You can suggest topics (requests to become her sidekick, questions, suggestions for new adventures) or you can leave it open-ended. Students may surprise you with their creativity.
- Create a Katie’s Picture Show comic book. Retell sequences from the book or create your own.
- As a class, prepare a mini-lesson for younger students. This could involve mini bios on the artists, listing sensory details in the paintings, or fun facts about the masterpieces. Buddy up with a younger class and reread the book. Then, partner students and let them present their work to the youngsters.