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Kid Legends
Kid Artists: True Tales of Childhood from Creative Legends
The series that began with Kid Presidents and Kid Athletes has a new volume that chronicles the childhoods of 16 celebrated artists—everyone from Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh to Mary Cassat, Frida Kahlo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and even Dr. Seuss! Readers will learn:
· Georgia O’Keeffe was so enthralled by nature that she once ate dirt just to see what it tasted like.
· Jackson Pollock lost the top of his right index finger in a childhood accident (and the severed tip was eaten by a rooster!).
· Andy Warhol’s favorite childhood lunch was—what else?—a bowl of Campbell’s tomato soup.
Every scribble, sketch, and sticky situation comes to life in these kid-friendly and relatable stories, all with Doogie Horner’s trademark full-color illustrations. Kid Artists is a delight for budding artists and eager readers alike.
· Georgia O’Keeffe was so enthralled by nature that she once ate dirt just to see what it tasted like.
· Jackson Pollock lost the top of his right index finger in a childhood accident (and the severed tip was eaten by a rooster!).
· Andy Warhol’s favorite childhood lunch was—what else?—a bowl of Campbell’s tomato soup.
Every scribble, sketch, and sticky situation comes to life in these kid-friendly and relatable stories, all with Doogie Horner’s trademark full-color illustrations. Kid Artists is a delight for budding artists and eager readers alike.
208 pages, ebook
First published August 9, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
July 11, 2017
'Kid Artists' by David Stabler with illustrations by Doogie Horner tells the story of many famous artists and events that happened when they were growing up.
In some cases, it tells how nature inspired them, like Emily Carr and Georgia O'Keeffe. Sometimes it was a rough life, like being shy like Charles Schulz, or a family losing it's fortune, like Yoko Ono. There are also stories about Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo and others.
The stories include illustrations which are mostly humorous. These don't lessen the tragedy of some of the stories, but they help to show the young artists at work and play. It's a well represented group of artists and it reads very well for a book for younger readers.
I received a review copy of this ebook from Quirk Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
In some cases, it tells how nature inspired them, like Emily Carr and Georgia O'Keeffe. Sometimes it was a rough life, like being shy like Charles Schulz, or a family losing it's fortune, like Yoko Ono. There are also stories about Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo and others.
The stories include illustrations which are mostly humorous. These don't lessen the tragedy of some of the stories, but they help to show the young artists at work and play. It's a well represented group of artists and it reads very well for a book for younger readers.
I received a review copy of this ebook from Quirk Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
June 10, 2016
Kid Artists introduces readers to a number of famous artists as children, telling compelling stories about how they practiced their art or where they learned to love it. A variety of artists from different background and styles ensures there's an artist who will appeal to everyone.
Interestingly, the book does seem to assume some knowledge of the artists in question, even though it's quite likely this could be many young readers' first introduction to a few of the figures. Some of the mini bios do a nice job of alluding to what the artists are known for, while not getting too bogged down in details: Georgia O'Keefe is known for her flowers or Jean-Michel Basquiat is known for his graffiti-style art. However, the only real allusion to Jackson Pollack's style is a cute cartoon of him looking thoughtfully at the wall of a mud-splattered pig sty. Yoko Ono's entry has one line at the end explaining she became known for Conceptual art; otherwise, the entry emphasizes her pacifism. Basically, the discussion of their actual art is a little uneven, and I think could use just a few more revisions to give everyone a similar level of detail.
The book is also a bit more random than Kid Athletes in the sense that not all the stories seem to have an immediately clear connection with the artists' later work (though arguably one's entire life would influence one's art). Kid Athletes seemed to have a bit more material to work with in the way of forming neat story arcs: "This kid was discouraged from playing sports for whatever reason but tried his best/practiced a lot/found a mentor and became a successful athlete later." Kid Artists has some stories like that, but it also has some entries that seem to be just about strange things that happened to the artists in their childhoods. They're still really engaging stories, however, and I think there is a good mix of stories that are about artists overcoming challenges related directly to art, artists overcoming other challenges like sickness, and artists who were pretty much like ordinary kids except they loved to draw.
The artwork, as with Kid Athletes, is charming and cartoony and just a bit clever. There's an image of Charles Schulz sitting in a little booth selling art for 5 cents and an image of Andy Warhol's mother offering him a choice of various different canned soups for lunch. Most of these clever nods will probably speak mainly to readers already familiar with the artists, but that's not unimaginable for the book; I assume, while this will be an intro to artists for some readers, other children will pick this up because they're already interested in artists and have read lots about them before. And the pictures are still good illustrations for the stories, even if the reader doesn't get the little joke.
Kid Artists is a quick, fun read that will show readers great artists started out just as kids and that working hard for what you want can really pay off.
Interestingly, the book does seem to assume some knowledge of the artists in question, even though it's quite likely this could be many young readers' first introduction to a few of the figures. Some of the mini bios do a nice job of alluding to what the artists are known for, while not getting too bogged down in details: Georgia O'Keefe is known for her flowers or Jean-Michel Basquiat is known for his graffiti-style art. However, the only real allusion to Jackson Pollack's style is a cute cartoon of him looking thoughtfully at the wall of a mud-splattered pig sty. Yoko Ono's entry has one line at the end explaining she became known for Conceptual art; otherwise, the entry emphasizes her pacifism. Basically, the discussion of their actual art is a little uneven, and I think could use just a few more revisions to give everyone a similar level of detail.
The book is also a bit more random than Kid Athletes in the sense that not all the stories seem to have an immediately clear connection with the artists' later work (though arguably one's entire life would influence one's art). Kid Athletes seemed to have a bit more material to work with in the way of forming neat story arcs: "This kid was discouraged from playing sports for whatever reason but tried his best/practiced a lot/found a mentor and became a successful athlete later." Kid Artists has some stories like that, but it also has some entries that seem to be just about strange things that happened to the artists in their childhoods. They're still really engaging stories, however, and I think there is a good mix of stories that are about artists overcoming challenges related directly to art, artists overcoming other challenges like sickness, and artists who were pretty much like ordinary kids except they loved to draw.
The artwork, as with Kid Athletes, is charming and cartoony and just a bit clever. There's an image of Charles Schulz sitting in a little booth selling art for 5 cents and an image of Andy Warhol's mother offering him a choice of various different canned soups for lunch. Most of these clever nods will probably speak mainly to readers already familiar with the artists, but that's not unimaginable for the book; I assume, while this will be an intro to artists for some readers, other children will pick this up because they're already interested in artists and have read lots about them before. And the pictures are still good illustrations for the stories, even if the reader doesn't get the little joke.
Kid Artists is a quick, fun read that will show readers great artists started out just as kids and that working hard for what you want can really pay off.
December 9, 2019
"Kid Artists" by David Stabler is one of my favorite books of all time. It shows the lives of many famous artists as kids. The book tells story's from Frida Pablo to Dr.Suess. The book tells the inspiration of the artists, their backstory, and so much more. One thing I especially like about this book is that all of the artists in this story have all had some bad thing or life-changing in their life, from their thumbs getting cut off to moving all around the U.S.. This book showed me that when things get in your way you get around them. The book is very inspirational and motivating, I feel that the story revolves around the theme of don't give up and try, try again.
I give this book 10 out of 10 and recommend this to all 6th graders who read this.
I give this book 10 out of 10 and recommend this to all 6th graders who read this.
August 3, 2019
A wonderful, kid-friendly introduction to some superstars of the art world.
May 8, 2016
Inspiring, motivating, and a great showcase of artists and their (strange) lives. As an adult artist - and occasionally an art tutor - I found it to be a perfect mix of 'practice makes perfect' and 'make art your way'. Highly recommended for schools, artists, and young artists.
April 24, 2020
Very inspiring book about the artists' childhood and their inspirations and passionate love for never stopping to work on art. This book really helped to understand the artist since mostly their art is what we remember them for.
November 7, 2017
I love, love, love the Kid Legends series, and this latest addition is no exception.
Squinklethoughts
1. Kid Artists is the third installment, preceded by Kid Presidents and Kid Athletes, which are also terrific. I love finding series that are so great that they become auto-buys. I have no doubt I’ll be reading (and buying for our library) the next title in this collection, whatever it might be about.
2. You’ll enjoy finding out what the childhoods of some very famous people were like. Well-known names like Andy Warhol (who loved Campbell’s tomato soup as a child) and Dr. Seuss (rhymes with “choice”, ya know) are just some of the people you’ll read about.
3. Sometimes, illustrious people have privileged beginnings, but many more times, they endure hardship and unsupportive friends and family in their younger years that you have to wonder how they ever produced their art. This book gives you the good stuff and the bad stuff that made these artists not just unique, but also remarkable.
4. I have a soft spot for Vincent van Gogh. (One of my favourite Doctor Who episodes is Vincent and the Doctor … bawled my eyes out at (spoiler alert) the end. Soooo great.) Be sure to read about his beginnings. We might never fully understand people, but we can try to appreciate what might have led them to turning points in their lives.
5. I hadn’t heard of some of the people covered in Kid Artists, so I’m glad to have this book accessible. There are so many cool people and events in history that we should all read about.
6. I love Doogie Horner’s people drawings. They’re wonderful!
7. Check out the Kid Legends website!
* Teachers/parents, if you’d like a copy of the chapter-by-chapter questions that I give to my students, please feel free to email me from my blog, Squinklebooks, where this review was originally posted.
Squinklethoughts
1. Kid Artists is the third installment, preceded by Kid Presidents and Kid Athletes, which are also terrific. I love finding series that are so great that they become auto-buys. I have no doubt I’ll be reading (and buying for our library) the next title in this collection, whatever it might be about.
2. You’ll enjoy finding out what the childhoods of some very famous people were like. Well-known names like Andy Warhol (who loved Campbell’s tomato soup as a child) and Dr. Seuss (rhymes with “choice”, ya know) are just some of the people you’ll read about.
3. Sometimes, illustrious people have privileged beginnings, but many more times, they endure hardship and unsupportive friends and family in their younger years that you have to wonder how they ever produced their art. This book gives you the good stuff and the bad stuff that made these artists not just unique, but also remarkable.
4. I have a soft spot for Vincent van Gogh. (One of my favourite Doctor Who episodes is Vincent and the Doctor … bawled my eyes out at (spoiler alert) the end. Soooo great.) Be sure to read about his beginnings. We might never fully understand people, but we can try to appreciate what might have led them to turning points in their lives.
5. I hadn’t heard of some of the people covered in Kid Artists, so I’m glad to have this book accessible. There are so many cool people and events in history that we should all read about.
6. I love Doogie Horner’s people drawings. They’re wonderful!
7. Check out the Kid Legends website!
* Teachers/parents, if you’d like a copy of the chapter-by-chapter questions that I give to my students, please feel free to email me from my blog, Squinklebooks, where this review was originally posted.
December 6, 2016
"Kid Artists" tells the tales of childhood from the artists we know best. What were they like as kids? What happened to them in order for them to become the great artists we know today?
The book is divided into 3 parts: It's a hard-knock life, practice makes perfect, and call of the wild.
The first section focuses on artists who grew up poor or experienced severe hardships from war to death. Yoko Ono was fascinating. She started off as pretty much royalty and then through World War II became destitute. She wanted to work it all out through poetry and created a style called Conceptual Art.
Part two focuses on kids who had some amazing mentors to help them on their way to their greatness. Frida Kahlo was a fascinating kid. Loved her father, loved nature, overcame illness.
Part three are kids who were greatly influenced by nature and the great outdoors. Vincent Van Gogh was a big nature lover. He pretty much spent his whole childhood out there. Nature was truly the only thing that made him happy. He poured all of his sadness into his art. At least he had that.
All the stories featured art. They all had interesting facts and anecdotes. It's a small and diverse introduction, one that gives kids a taste and a desire for more information.
My son and I really enjoyed reading about these artists together.
I received an advanced copy from the publisher in return for an honest and fair review.
The book is divided into 3 parts: It's a hard-knock life, practice makes perfect, and call of the wild.
The first section focuses on artists who grew up poor or experienced severe hardships from war to death. Yoko Ono was fascinating. She started off as pretty much royalty and then through World War II became destitute. She wanted to work it all out through poetry and created a style called Conceptual Art.
Part two focuses on kids who had some amazing mentors to help them on their way to their greatness. Frida Kahlo was a fascinating kid. Loved her father, loved nature, overcame illness.
Part three are kids who were greatly influenced by nature and the great outdoors. Vincent Van Gogh was a big nature lover. He pretty much spent his whole childhood out there. Nature was truly the only thing that made him happy. He poured all of his sadness into his art. At least he had that.
All the stories featured art. They all had interesting facts and anecdotes. It's a small and diverse introduction, one that gives kids a taste and a desire for more information.
My son and I really enjoyed reading about these artists together.
I received an advanced copy from the publisher in return for an honest and fair review.
May 3, 2019
Kid Legends Series review…
Kid Legends is a multi-author, multi-illustrator series that is a big hit with students. The text and illustration have a casual style that often includes an undertone of sarcasm. Kid Legends is not as far over the edge or a busy as the “You Wouldn’t Want to be…” series, which I find annoying, but they use a little zest with the subject matter. This upbeat tone, even in the accounting of serious childhood struggles, maintains the positive message that all will come out okay for these kids who grow to be adults that make famous contributions to society. Each title (be it Kid Presidents, Kid Scientists, or Kid Authors) maintains a narrow focus on the childhood of the subjects, avoiding adult lives, and is even a little neglectful of their accomplishments as they sidestep any assessments of their talent, work, life or death. And there is the rub. While the books are fantastic at encouraging kids that the struggles of childhood are common through these enticing biographies, several of the subjects are inappropriate for children to engage with at this stage of their lives. Yet students laugh out loud, want to share tidbits, and thoroughly enjoy these titles. Even better, they are challenged to explore their own passions and interests!
Kid Artists review coming...
Kid Legends is a multi-author, multi-illustrator series that is a big hit with students. The text and illustration have a casual style that often includes an undertone of sarcasm. Kid Legends is not as far over the edge or a busy as the “You Wouldn’t Want to be…” series, which I find annoying, but they use a little zest with the subject matter. This upbeat tone, even in the accounting of serious childhood struggles, maintains the positive message that all will come out okay for these kids who grow to be adults that make famous contributions to society. Each title (be it Kid Presidents, Kid Scientists, or Kid Authors) maintains a narrow focus on the childhood of the subjects, avoiding adult lives, and is even a little neglectful of their accomplishments as they sidestep any assessments of their talent, work, life or death. And there is the rub. While the books are fantastic at encouraging kids that the struggles of childhood are common through these enticing biographies, several of the subjects are inappropriate for children to engage with at this stage of their lives. Yet students laugh out loud, want to share tidbits, and thoroughly enjoy these titles. Even better, they are challenged to explore their own passions and interests!
Kid Artists review coming...
March 27, 2022
Another in the series--this book focuses on artists as kids & their inspirations. Section one features such artists as da Vinci, Van Gogh, Beatrix Potter & others who loved the outdoors, animals & nature & started drawing & painting what they saw. Section two focuses on artists overcoming poverty, discrimination, illness & other obstacles. Some of the artists are Charles Schulz, Jackson Pollock, Yoko Ono, Jean-Michel Basquiat, & Dr. Seuss among others. The last section features artists who had encouragement from people in their lives whether parents, siblings, teachers or friends such as Monet, Picasso, Kahlo, & Warhol. There were artists with whom I wasn't familiar & it was interesting to read about them & then look up their work to see what they became famous for. This was an interesting book which I enjoyed. Made me wish I was still teaching my students at school where I used to feature Artist of the Month & have the kids try their own versions of the work of famous or unusual artists.
Currently reading
February 12, 2021My favorite stories were of Frida Kahlo because her dad loved Frida so much that even when she got sick her father was happy to be with her, and of Charles Schulz because my favorite movie is Peanuts and he created all the characters and I really like it. All the characters that were in this book are Leonardo da Vinci, Vicent van Gogh, Beatrix Potter, Emily Carr, Georgia O’Keeffe, Louise Nevelson, Dr. Seuss, Jackson Pollock, Charles Schulz, Yoko Ono, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring. This book changed me because now I know the dificult that was for some artists to get where they are now and I recommend this book to Julia because she really likes art.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2018
Very interesting book! If I were an art teacher 6-9th Grade, I would read a chapter a week or so and teach from that while the students are working on their projects. I learned a lot.
What is cool and different about this book, is that it isn't a life sketch of the artist (though I feel like it covers a lot of the artist life) it focuses on their childhood.
The opening line of the book is " Not every kid grows up to be a great artist . But every great artists definitely starts out as a kid"
I enjoyed each artist section and want to learn more. Now I need to go back to google each artist I am unfamiliar with!
What is cool and different about this book, is that it isn't a life sketch of the artist (though I feel like it covers a lot of the artist life) it focuses on their childhood.
The opening line of the book is " Not every kid grows up to be a great artist . But every great artists definitely starts out as a kid"
I enjoyed each artist section and want to learn more. Now I need to go back to google each artist I am unfamiliar with!
March 15, 2018
Beautifully written and illustrated. I love the style of writing, explaining to children how these great artists were once children with talents and how they discovered their own ways to share those gifts. Kids ages 9-12 would surely be inspired. I appreciated that there was a bibliography at the back of the book to interest kids in further readings. This book is from a series “Kid Legends” that includes Kid Presidents, Athletes and Writers.
October 15, 2017
This was a great book to read aloud together with my son (10yrs). The book tells stories from the childhood of many different authors. We both learned quite a lot and more than a few great conversations were had about how different people live, childhood issues and great works of art. We also had a good time looking up the art of each artist.
April 24, 2019
What a great little book! I read it with the kids for school, and it was engaging and understandable for all three of them (ages 7-11). Everyone loved the little comic-style illustrations, and there were several times I caught one of the kids browsing through the book on their own. We will absolutely be reading the other books in this series.
April 12, 2018
My daughter raced through all four books in this series so I wanted to give them a try. I enjoyed this one, but as an adult I really wished there were some photographs (of the people and of their art) to go along with the stories.
October 30, 2018
Brief inspiring stories about a diverse group of artists. Both my seven year old and I enjoyed this book. Just wish it had pictures of works by the artists mentioned. More anecdotal than educational, but still an entertaining introduction to each artist.
June 16, 2019
Neat! I was familiar with about half of the artists featured here, but all of their stories were interesting and made me want to learn more. The stories talk about their younger lives and how they got to be artists instead of focusing on their adult years. The little illustrations are cool too.
June 17, 2019
Dạo nhà sách thấy xinh quá nên rước về:">
Cuốn này đọc cũng ổn, minh họa có ở hầu như mọi trang. Chữ khá bự nên đọc véo là xong. Có điều nhìn như sách cho trẻ em vậy thôi chứ từ vựng không quá dễ cho các bé. Gọi là sách cho trẻ em bản ngữ thì đúng hơn.
Cuốn này đọc cũng ổn, minh họa có ở hầu như mọi trang. Chữ khá bự nên đọc véo là xong. Có điều nhìn như sách cho trẻ em vậy thôi chứ từ vựng không quá dễ cho các bé. Gọi là sách cho trẻ em bản ngữ thì đúng hơn.
December 21, 2020
I loved this book and really enjoyed learning about a few artists that I did not know much about. Most I enjoyed, but would disagree with including Yoko Ono in the list. Probably just my opinion, but I do not think she had enough creativity and talent to be included on this list.
November 6, 2021
I got this originally to go with an artist study for homeschooling but ended up just reading it myself. I like the concept, but it took me awhile to g we through it. I might enjoy the Kid Presidents one more.
April 11, 2022
i can name all of them frida kahlo leonardo da vinci charles schulz jean-michel basquais andy warhol georgia o'kleffe pablo picasso beatrix potter vincent van gogh emily carr louise nevelson dr.seuss jackon pollockclaude monetyoko onojacob lawrence keith haring [i love it]
July 21, 2017
Very cute stories.
October 21, 2017
I thought it was an interesting introduction to a variety of artists. I think this would be a great book to include when learning about the artists in this book.
October 26, 2017
great snap shots of different artists childhoods
November 1, 2017
A great book for kids who love biographies. My 7th grader was enthralled!
November 6, 2017
A few of the entries felt a little heavy handed.
December 14, 2017
Another good book in the series.
December 28, 2017
Good reading for young capitalists who like art
It was good and funny 😃😃😃 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎😎 😎 😎
It was good and funny 😃😃😃 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎😎 😎 😎
December 28, 2017
I loved the personal stories and childhood experiences of the artists. My only complaint is that it didn't include pictures of the artists' work.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews