Remember the 1, 2, 3, Sí! book that I mentioned as part of the Read 3 program at H-E-B? The counting book has been so popular and won so many awards that Trinity University Press and the San Antonio Museum of Art have decided to make it a series. Hello Círculos! (shapes) and Colores Everywhere! (colors) are the two new books in the Arte Kids series, and more books are planned for next year. All the images are from the collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art. The text is bilingual in English and Spanish, and it asks clever questions that build comprehension.
Last week, my daughter and I got together with a group of families at the San Antonio Museum of Art to see the new books, make crafts, listen to music from Azul, tour the galleries, and eat Lily’s Cookies. During story time, my daughter (who’s almost three years old) didn’t just want to listen to the new book; she got out her copy the counting book and read it out loud. (She knows it by heart.) My daughter also enjoyed calling out what she saw in the galleries: “Baby!” (a folk art cherub), “Guitar!” (a mandolin). The hardest part was explaining, “Don’t touch!”
UPDATE: More at “Kids Arte Book Series a Hit”, David Martin Davies, Fronteras, December 14, 2012; “Arte Kids”, Katie Fiegel, Texas Tigers blog, December 11, 2012.
Note: We received free admission to the museum and to the book launch party; we also received a set of review copies of the Arte Kids books. However, the opinions are my own.
