This is an excellent bedtime book to read to a young child. We started reading it to our daughter when she was first born. Now at age 16 months, it is her favorite book.

The pictures are vibrant and sweet. But my favorite part of the book is the cadance of the text....it just flows off the tongue and thus is a joy to read. We have basically memorized it from reading it so much. So now we can recant it to our daughter even when we don't have the book. This is a great benefit when travelling, since the familiar words lull our daughter to sleep.

Can't recommend it highly enough!

This is my two-year old's very favorite book. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is very creative. The author tells of the dreams of various animals. A hippo dreams of being a butterfly. Zebras dream of being painted in bright colors. I definitely recommend it, especially for animal-loving children.

In a scenary of suffering and destruction, Léa Delmas, young and beautiful, discovers the cowardness and dangerness of collaborationship with the enemies between her family and friends. Some, however, prefered to fight, even if they'd had to put their friends in risk. That was the way chosen by Léa, who becomes engaged into the resistance in order to fight back the deutchs and to try to save people who she loves and her country. It's a wonderful book...you wont regreat

In a scenary os suffering and destruction, Léa Delmas, young and beaultifull, discovers the cowardness and dangerness of collaborationship with the enemies between her parents and friends.Some, however, prefered to fight, even if they'd had to put their friends in risk..This was the way choosen by Lea, who becomes engaged into the resistance in order to fight back the deutchs and to try to save it's cared people and it's loved country.

This is a great book to introduce children to the paintings of Henri Matisse. Best of all the rhyming text captures a childs attention and helps with language development. As an art teacher and a soon to be mother, this book is on the top of my list.

Of course, you want to do these stretches in privacy and not by the copier or in the elevator depicts! But it is good to know what to do to get rid of that "hunched-over" look and feeling so many of us start to take on about midday. And you need a calendar anyway (particularly if you are not a Palm-pilot type, like me) so why not one that helps you take care of your mental and physical health?

If you wish to view the real New Orleans carnival celebration, take a look through this window opened by its legendary artist/historian, Henri Schindler. Schindler is a local icon, the touchstone of this unique cultural expression. Students of cultural and social history as well as art lovers and designers will share delight in Schindler's masterful recreation, through well-researched and entertaining text and beautiful color plates, of the "golden age" of the celebration--an oeuvre to which Schindler adds annually through his own designs for several of the old-line carnival organizations, thus keeping alive the artistic and cultural tradition of which he writes in this and his previous books. The reader comes to know, through the insights of a true "insider", the meaning and spirit of the "real" Carnival.

This book is exquisite.
In New Orleans, Mardi Gras as practiced by the faithfull is the high holy event of the year. Mr. Schindler has documented the aesthetic traditions of the rites in a series of beautiful books- this is the lastest and focuses on costume designs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The plates are all original drawings by the great designers of Carnivals' past (Mr. Schindler is the great designer of Carnivals present). New Orleans Mardi Gras is rooted in the aesthetic of 19th century Italian opera and this book has some truly surreal illustrations. Any Carnival faithfull, opera fan, theatre designer or just folks who love costume parties should love this book. It also stands as a serious work of art history- the talent and effort that go into mounting parades and tableaux balls in New Orleans get overlooked and all of Mr. Schindlers books on the subject document a rich history of artists and artisans who worked in the city and built its most revered tradition.

Schindler, himself a treasure-trove of history and lore of New Orleans' "golden age", shares through lucid and eloquent essays and stunning color plates the story of the evolution of the Carnival street pageant, from its beginnings in pre-Civil War affluence to the great depression of the 1930s. He weaves a tapestry of social, political and economic events through the warp of the lives of the great artists and artistic movements that shaped the unique street parades of the New Orleans Carnival. From the sadly anonymous creator of the 1858 Comus pageant memorialized in the London Illustrated News through the accomplishments of prolific Virginia Wilkinson Wilde and the remarkable Plauche family in the last century, Schindler offers a rich chronicle of the men and women who created a unique art form that provided mass public entertainment long before the invention of the motion picture projector and cathode ray tube. Those of us who have enjoyed his prior publications, Mardi Gras and Invitations of the Golden Age will delight in this latest addition to the multi-layered history of New Orleans' pre-Lenten celebration. Readers new to Schindler's magic will eagerly await his next opus.

Mardi Gras Treasures charts the specialty parade floats of Carnival in New Orleans from 1870-1930, examining classic and artistic themes and recreating original float designs in watercolor and lithographs. The author, Henri Schindler, has himself designed Mardi Gras parades and balls for some time: his striking full-color illustrations will appeal to a wide audience, from float designers to artists with a special interest in New Orleans works and history.

Over two hundred invitations, dance cards and admit cards are assembled here in a coverage of the art work associated with the Mardi Gras which began in the 1870s and was marked by pageants and private balls. While Mardi Gras Treasures is a specialty collection of interest to those researching New Orleans collectibles and Mardi Gras collectibles in particular, many a reader will delight in these full-page illustrations.

Whether your interest is socio-cultural, historical or purely aesthetic, you will treasure Henri Schindler's latest passport to the "Golden Age" of the New Orleans Carnival celebration. Schindler, who is himself a treasure-trove of information on this subject, has put together a most interesting documentary providing an in-depth discussion of the historical roots of the pre-Lenten festival against a background of the artists, illustrators and patrons who gave the "Golden Age" its particular look and ambience. The quality of the color reproductions of the invitations that make up a major part of the book is most impressive. The color and clarity of these (mostly) art nouveau works comes across on each page, leaving the reader with the feeling that he or she has truly been a part of this romantic era.

This nimble and witty book by one of the most important scholars of modern art is not merely the sum of two monographs on these giants of the 20th century. To the now-standard operating procedure of relativism and contextualization, Bois adds a twist. He proposes the relationship between the artists as a fitful but sustaining dialogue, rejecting as inadequate to the critical task the idea that Matisse and Picasso simply influenced one another. Drawing on diverse theoretical models in the writing of Mikhail Bakhtin, Hubert Damisch, Rene Girard and Harold Bloom, the author argues instead that for a period of over 25 years, from the late 1920s until after Matisse's death in 1954, each artist deliberately addressed his work in specific ways to the other. The theory is necessary because actual contact between the two was sporadic. This is what makes Bois's thesis about their need for one another so intriguing. What prompted this dialogue--what made the need possible, Bois asserts--was their common cause against abstraction. Prodding, teasing, paying homage, supplicating, even misunderstanding--in these and other ways Matisse and Picasso challenged each other in their mutual effort to push the envelope of representation without letting the tangibility of the world's things slip from their grasp. When they strayed into the other's long-established artistic territories (Picasso painting odalisques; Matisse working in a Cubist idiom) they were sending signals to each other above the artistic fray, in a kind of Olympian fraternal sympathy. This sealing off of Matisse's and Picasso's artistic communication from the rest of the world is the most controversial aspect of the book, as it was of the beautiful exhibition it accompanied at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Bois frankly calls his effort an "experiment" in which it is necessary to isolate variables, studying them carefully in relation to one another, with the relationship itself as the constant factor. This scientific conceit of "let's see what happens" is undermined by the humanistic drive to demonstrate a thesis. And we should be thankful for that. Like the best publications arising from exhibitions, this book will have independent, lasting value, but it will also be more provocative than most.

Some might say that another exhibition of Matisse and Picasso is hardly what the art world needs. Havent't we seen enough of these two artists recently? Why continue to do blockbuster exhibitions which just show us well-known works? If you read this book, you might change your mind about the relevance of the show. First, although some of the paintings shown here are quite familiar from other exhibitions, many have never been exhibited or published before. Second, this exhibition offers a rare look at a virtually unique case of two major artists who visibly responded to each other's styles during 25 years of peak productivity. The book focusses on the 1930's, '40's and early 1950's (the section on the war years is particularly well-written), and allows the reader to experience, virtually month by month, the artistic interaction between the two artists. It is fascinating to see the commonality in their themes, beliefs and motifs, despite the great difference in their visual styles. Finally, this is a well-designed book - the plates are of the highest color quality and are beautifully arranged. Although English is not Bois' first language, the text has been translated in an elegant and efficient manner. If you can't go see this exhibition, definitely read this book.

What a great selection of Matisse cut paper work! I like that these postcards can be removed easily from the book for use, or display.

This is a great book if you are looking for samples of Matisse's cut paper work. The postcards have perforated edges and can be easily removed from the book. I put magnetic backgrounds on them to hang in my classroom so that children could see them when we focused on Matisse in art class.

This book is a really good book in familiarizing the reader with Claude Monet. It shows more than 120 of his most famous paintings in color and descibes them. Several are shown in detail, also. This is not an in depth book about his life however, but it does give you a sense and an appreciation of who he was. Paintings from the earliest stage of his career to his last famous waterlilies are shown. The majority are given a page, or sometimes 2 pages. The only disappointment is that only 3 waterlilies are shown. (6 if one includes the pictures with the Japanese bridge.) But that shouldn't deter you from this book, since there are many books about Monet's waterlilies in print. (I recommand MONET IN THE 20TH CENTURY or MONET'S YEARS AT GIVERNY. Either will make a fine complement to this book.) The author writes both about Monet's life, and how it affected his paintings, and the paintings themselves. It is not "deep" but that is because this the type of book that doesn't permit that kind of introspection by the author. However, you will be able to have some sense of Monet's contradictions and complexities by the end of the book. It is a really lovely book that shouldn't be missed out on.

This book tells in detail about life and art of Claude Monet, it uncovers also his very interesting personality. The story of Monet's life becames really truthful when you read quotations from his letters to his friends. Illustrations are selected perfectly, you can find canvases from 1861 to 1919. The colors of pictures in this book are very close to the colors of original paintings (as I could see in The Art Institute of Chicago). "Monet : Impressions of Light" - is for soul and for mind of readers.

Lubac was without a doubt one of the giants of Catholic theology in the past century. This book is his seminal work: a defense of man's need for the supernatural grace of God. Such a need places man in the position of "an arid valley" in need of "rain(grace)" - this anthropological phenomenon forces God to send the Holy Spirit as the vessel of Grace, to the hearts of men. Written decades before Vatican II this book was perceived as heterodox by the Holy See, placing Lubac (together with Chenu, Congar and his fellow Jesuit Chardin) on the black list. Ironically, the current pontiff, no friend of radicalism, made Lubac a Cardinal in recognition of his theological contributions to the faith. The book remains a keystone of radical orthodoxy.

In this work Fr. DeLubac proposes to study what he posits to be one of the central paradoxes of Christianity; namely that man is disposed towards and deeply desires the Beatific Vision but, if left to his own means, is incapable of attaining this end. What Fr. DeLubac proceeds to do is work his way systematically through the history of this classical Christian idea, giving copious refrences, and subsequently showing that certain modern trends in theology, while trying to preserve the gratuitiousness of this great gift from God, acutally serve to undermind the integrity of the classical idea. This is not lightweight reading to be sure but this new edition is more suited to the english speaking reader in that all the quotes and footnotes have been translated from the original Latin and Greek into English. Furthermore the introduction gives a fine overview of the historical circumstances surrounding this monumental work.