The Thinking Mother: Red Dogs and Pink Skies Book Review by ...

Title: Red Dogs and Pink Skies: Paul Gauguin on Painting and Music (book and audio CD)
Authors: Bruce Adolphe and Evan Polenghi
Featuring Music by: Bruce Aldolphe
Publication: Pollyrhythm Productions, 2002
ISBN: 0970124910

My Star Rating: 5 Stars Out of 5 = I Love It Unique Children's Book That Explains Gauguin's Painting Style to Music Composition

Summary Statement:

This oversized children's picture book is alive with color and is lavishly illustrated. Although intended for children the text is written for a mature audience or for children very interested and knowledgable about music and/or art. I read this book aloud to my children aged 10 and 13 and not only did they learn things, I did too.

Discussed in the book is how music is composed to convey emotion and a reaction in the listener and in this book Gauguin's paintings are compared to a musical composition. The use of color and the bold use of non-realistic colors are intended to produce emotion and color harmony NOT being painted with realism. The book walks the reader through the use of color, texture, rhythm, and harmony as used by Gauguin and compared to how musicians use the same components to evoke mood in a listener.

The book includes photographs of Gauguin as well as full color reproductions of his paintings. A timeline of Gauguin's life runs along the bottom of the pages. The reader is taught how to really look at each work of art. I found it useful and interesting when some of Gauguin's paintings were altered with different colors or shown in black and white to demonstrate how very important the use of color is. Discussed throughout is what Gauguin was trying to convey and how his critics didn't understand his ideas. The authors clearly want young readers to "get it" and to view Gauguin's art from Gauguin's perspective.

The book comes with a music audio CD of pieces by Bruce Adolphe. We are asked to listen and to pick out the mood, rhythm and such from the music just as we can pick them out in a painting. The pieces are inspired by Gauguin and in the Notes to the CD section the reader is given background information and is asked to ponder questions while listening to the music.

This is a unique book and audio CD product that compliments or could be the central book used to teach children about the art of Paul Gauguin. Due to the big ideas and the not very simplified nature of the text, I feel the book will only hold the attention span of precocious children with parents who also care about these topics. It would also be best for?children who are?very interested in art history or who know and understand these ideas about music. Kids disinterested in art and music may feel the text talks over their heads or goes deeper than they want to delve into it. With that said a parent or school teacher can use the book and can tweak the use of it by breaking it up into multiple readings rather than a straight read-through in order to fully use the text with the kids.

I commend what the authors have done with this book and audio CD and highly recommend it to families and school teachers. This book is best for reading aloud and discussion not just putting it into the hands of kids and having them read it independently.

Note: You can listen to Bruce Adolphe's free streaming MP3 music here.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author for the purpose of writing a review. I was not paid to write this nor was I under obligation to give it a favorable review. (A friend met the author while sitting next to him on a train and after she read the book,?she asked me if I'd be interested in reviewing this book.) For my blog's full disclosure statement see the link at the top of my blog's sidebar.

Source: http://thethinkingmother.blogspot.com/2011/05/red-dogs-and-pink-skies-book-review-by.html

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