The Met Hokusai: He Saw the World in a Wave

by Susie Hodge

Kim Ekdahl (Illustrator)

See the world through Hokusai's eyes and be inspired to produce your own masterpieces.

Have you ever wondered exactly what your favorite artists were looking at to make them draw, sculpt, or paint the way they did? In this charming illustrated series of books to keep and collect, created in full collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, you can see what they saw, and be inspired to create your own artworks, too. In What the Artist Saw: Hokusai, meet groundbreaking Japanese artist Hokusai. Step into his life and learn what led him to create more than 30,000 works of art, including his famous woodcut views of The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Mount Fuji. Discover how he planned to live to 110 and even produced the first ever pieces of manga! Have a go at making your own printed artworks.

In this series, follow the artists’ stories and find intriguing facts about their environments and key masterpieces. Then see what you can see and make your own art. Take a closer look at landscapes with Georgia O’Keeffe, or even yourself, with Vincent van Gogh. Every book in this series is one to treasure and keep – perfect for inspiring budding young artists to continue their own artistic journeys.

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• ISBN10: 0744039789
• ISBN13: 9780744039788
• Publish Date: 30 November 2021 (first published 4 November 2021)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd
• Imprint: DK Children
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 56
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780744039788

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Met Hokusai is one of a new series of illustrated biographies of famous artists for young readers. Released 30th Nov 2021 by Penguin Random House on their DK imprint, it's 56 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is a clearly told and beautifully illustrated biography of the famous 18th century Japanese artist. The text is full of age-appropriate details about the artist's life and works. One thing I really enjoyed about this book (and the others in the series) are the reader drawing prompts generously scattered throughout. Readers are invited to draw in the style of an artist they admire, draw street scenes and people in their neighborhood, draw scenes from different seasons and many more. The prompts are placed on pages with tie-in background scenes and relevant observations about the artist's life and development.

This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, for the home library, and for gift giving to a young reader, perhaps bundled with some drawing tools and supplies.

Five stars. Genuinely well written and illustrated.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.