I heart Ebay! We found the set of Childcraft encylopedias I grew up with from 1974; these two volumes above fed my need for artistic knowledge with tons of information that made me think. If you have kids in your life, I highly recommend trying to snatch these two volumes up. They ROCK, and you can get them for a song.

Volume 13 - Look Again - (top) Shows many representations of various works of art with discussion questions. A great intro to art for kids. The Magritte (and more fantastic works along this line) made a great impression on me.

Volume 12 - Look and Learn - (bottom) Discusses symbolism, the history of typography, advertising and trademarks, color theory. I swear I knew things in college the rest of my art class didn't, because of this book.

Now get this: my library was getting rid of their set from the early 90's. I grabbed them up with glee (and $5) and found out when I got home that surprise! my two favorite volumes were gone. Art replaced by (gulp) "Mathemagics." And since then I've been on a mission to find those lost volumes. I now have two complete sets, which are known as "the ones you can read anytime" and "the ones you have to ask Mama to read with you." And we sit down together, share art, ask questions, discuss. They are only 2 and 3 years old, and they get it.

If you're looking for the whole set (they're great!) search for: Childcraft: The How and Why Library 1974. The 1975 and 1976 editions have the same covers and issue titles, and may be the same. We wanted the whole set, but you can purchase individual volumes for $.99 in some cases. Of course, the volumes on science are quite out of date, but the ones on literature, animals, and plants are virtually the same.