Come Look with Me: Discovering African American Art for Children by Lickle Publishing and J Rolling Jr.: Multicultural

Come Look with Me is an interactive series that take 12 pieces of African American artwork and poses inviting and provoking questions. This book’s artwork and text allows the reader to think about answers that African Americans have struggle to address as they have made a new identity for themselves since being treated like property. My favorite piece is an oil canvas called the Banjo Lesson by Henry Ossawa Tanner. It depicts an elderly man, presumably a father figure, with a young boy on his lap holding a banjo trying to play. There are pots and pans on the floor and the overall picture is pretty dark. The questions posed include: Is the old man trying to the boy a song, What is that instrument they are holding in their hands, Why are those pots on the floor, Are they all alone in the house? After the age appropriate questions, there is a history of the artist and then of the painting and what it represents. This book would be an asset to any classroom, especially and art classroom. I would also like to have the series in its entirety. Looking at art also allows children time to interact with their feelings and express those feelings.