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Art appreciation for tots {Reviewed by STELLA} It’s never too early for art appreciation. From the moment we open our eyes we are stimulated by the shapes, objects, colours and light that surround us. Art is a potent visual communicator that helps us to see the world anew and allows us reflection and joy, and challenges our senses as well as our intellect. Babies and children recognise bold shapes and contrasting colours and refine these with experience and interaction with visual language. Here are a few excellent art books for the youngest people in our lives from our shelves. My First Book of Patterns is a zany, colourful introduction to line and shape which any potential designer will appreciate. Starting with the simple straight line, the book takes the child on an exploration of pattern. Line makes stripes and plaid. And here is Square creating crazy checks. Circle makes the world wonderfully polka-dotted and Diamond produces harlequin and argyle. The textile references give this shape book a quirky, unexpected flavour. Each shape has a full picture spread with an active scene. Yachts in the harbour with their checked sails, a summery beach scene with paisley sun umbrella and swimming towels, floral cars, buses and trucks merrily making their way across the page. The end boards fold out to reveal some tasty treats showing all the shapes and patterns learnt through your interaction with this sturdy board book. For a step up in pattern intrigue, a pop-up book of Madam Sonia Delaunay’s art is just the thing. Not just exploring pattern and colour but three-dimensional form, this is playful as well as informative as an introduction to the sculpture and costume of this artist, and the concept of shape and dimensionality. The playful rhyming text keeps the beat with the visual structure that literally pop out on the page. “Red and yellow, round they go. Circles dancing, how entrancing! Green and blue, the planets trace their rotating paths through space.” These are first step lessons in looking at art and expressing what you see and feel as you interpret the form, colours and arrangements of shapes in relation to each other. Simple and deceptively clever — learning about art and ways of seeing without pretension from the Tate. Themed art books for small children are excellent. Phaidon has recently produced a series of sturdy board books that are bold and beautiful. One of these is My Art Book of Sleep. With thirty-four works it's an excellent way to bring art into your young person’s realm. Ranging from Rousseau’s The Sleeping Gypsy to Van Gogh’s beautiful starry night to Kusama’s wondrous Infinity Room Mirror and Hockney’s Little Stanley Sleeping, the book tells the simple story of ending your day, reading your last page, the sun going down, the moon coming up, the goodnight cuddles, and the dreams that await until you awake and start a brand new day, encompassing the universal act of sleeping and dreaming — as well as the emotions you may have when you are sleep deprived! Munch’s The Scream and Picasso’s Weeping Woman. Sure to become a bedtime favourite. Also in this series My Art Book of Love and My Art Book of Happiness.