Take a trip through the history of art with this cohesive and accessible volume of awe-inspiring variety. Beginning with cave paintings and ending with artists still living today, Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories (Laurence King, $29.95) spans thousands of years in 68 chronologically arranged tales. Michael Bird recounts the life stories of a number of artists and imagines what they might have thought and said about their own creative journeys, while Kate Evans’s evocative watercolors include both original compositions and appealing reproductions of the famous works that Bird discusses. Warranting multiple reads from cover to cover, this is a perfect way to expose children to the wonders of human creativity through the ages. Ages 9-14.