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abe25's review against another edition
5.0
great book about museums and how they cam about for children!
mat_tobin's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent book indeed in which Jan Mark (this was to be her final book) gives us a wonderful tour of the history of the Museum. From its beginnings in the hands of Princess Bel-Shanti to the current day at the Ashmolean, we have here a brief yet deeply fascinating history of the Museum and our constant obsession with cataloging and collecting in an attempt to read and understand the past.
Alongside Holland's mixed-media collages which celebrate the idea of museums also being places in which a mixture of objects are collated and pondered over, Mark's writing makes The Museum Book a little marvel. It isn't just finding out about Peter the Great's obsession with collecting stories of the world through objects or reading about the history of the Wunderkammer that I found engaging but Mark's wonderfully witty and almost informal, rather chatty writing style. She herself sounds like an excited and engaged grandparent taking you around the museum and her last lines on memory and collecting is so clever that it's a wonder that more people aren't talking about this wonderful little gem.
Alongside Holland's mixed-media collages which celebrate the idea of museums also being places in which a mixture of objects are collated and pondered over, Mark's writing makes The Museum Book a little marvel. It isn't just finding out about Peter the Great's obsession with collecting stories of the world through objects or reading about the history of the Wunderkammer that I found engaging but Mark's wonderfully witty and almost informal, rather chatty writing style. She herself sounds like an excited and engaged grandparent taking you around the museum and her last lines on memory and collecting is so clever that it's a wonder that more people aren't talking about this wonderful little gem.
abigailbat's review against another edition
2.0
In solid blocks of text and run-on sentences, Mark explores the history of museums. Although it does contain a plethora of interesting facts, the book seemed poorly organized to me, repeating itself occasionally. The mixed media collage illustrations didn't feel like a great match and on at least one occasion a building discussed in the text was not included when all the others were. There's a glossary and index at the end of the book, but no source notes or references. It's altogether possible that this book just didn't strike a chord with me, but I was disappointed.
jessalynn_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
Large format, with fun illustrations and compelling text, this is a great look at the history and purpose of museums. I'm a huge museum geek, so I loved the run-down of how museums came to be, what kinds of museums exist, and how they've changed over time. The illustrations take up maybe half the space, and compliment the text while still being their own interesting thing, and the text is in several chapters, with a glossary and index. The book ends on a great note, talking about how people often run out of space in museums, and much of the collection in kept in storage, but we each have our own, personal museum - our memory. "Remember Mnemosyne the Titan, mother of the Muses? She was memory. Memory is your museum, your cabinet of curiosities, your Wunderkammer. It will never be full; there is always room for something new and strange and marvelous. It will never need dusting" (p. 48). It's all in that same tone - chatty and informative, not talking down but making sure to explain things. I would guess upper elementary/middle school as a good target audience, or any good reader who's interested in museums or needs a good introduction to them.
lenka_v's review against another edition
4.0
A very nice introduction to museums, their history and meaning (not only) for kids.
valgus's review against another edition
4.0
I liked it! It was a little bit scatterbrained, but I know I would have loved this as a kid! It's just so cool looking!
mat_tobin's review
5.0
An excellent book indeed in which Jan Mark (this was to be her final book) gives us a wonderful tour of the history of the Museum. From its beginnings in the hands of Princess Bel-Shanti to the current day at the Ashmolean, we have here a brief yet deeply fascinating history of the Museum and our constant obsession with cataloging and collecting in an attempt to read and understand the past.
Alongside Holland's mixed-media collages which celebrate the idea of museums also being places in which a mixture of objects are collated and pondered over, Mark's writing makes The Museum Book a little marvel. It isn't just finding out about Peter the Great's obsession with collecting stories of the world through objects or reading about the history of the Wunderkammer that I found engaging but Mark's wonderfully witty and almost informal, rather chatty writing style. She herself sounds like an excited and engaged grandparent taking you around the museum and her last lines on memory and collecting is so clever that it's a wonder that more people aren't talking about this wonderful little gem.
Alongside Holland's mixed-media collages which celebrate the idea of museums also being places in which a mixture of objects are collated and pondered over, Mark's writing makes The Museum Book a little marvel. It isn't just finding out about Peter the Great's obsession with collecting stories of the world through objects or reading about the history of the Wunderkammer that I found engaging but Mark's wonderfully witty and almost informal, rather chatty writing style. She herself sounds like an excited and engaged grandparent taking you around the museum and her last lines on memory and collecting is so clever that it's a wonder that more people aren't talking about this wonderful little gem.
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