NYC's Museum Mile with Chet the Architect

Chet McGraw is a fictional architect who takes children on a journey down New York City's Museum Mile. Featured in two books, Chet the Architect teaches about the diverse architecture of the 9 museums and the simple shapes kids can use to draw pictures of the museums.

Chet the Architect: How to Draw by Kathryn Koller teaches children to draw the outside of each of the 9 museums on NYC's Museum Mile. By using color photographs of the museum and line drawings children learn about simple shapes and how to combine those shapes to draw their own version of the each museum.

I love that my kids can learn simple architecture terms while having fun drawing on the pages provided in this book.

Chet the Architect: Museum Mile Pocket Edition is an accordion style book that provides a few facts about each museum along with a drawing of the building. Among the facts listed are architect, date built, architecture style, and the museum's purpose.


I can see families using these books in a variety of ways:

• to prepare for a visit to NYC's Museum Mile.
• to learn how to combine simple shapes to create complex drawings.
• to introduce architecture styles to children.

I like both books and heartily recommend them. The publisher, Butterfly Artistic Media, recommends Chet the Architect books for ages 4 and up, but (as the mom of 3, 5, 7, 9 yr olds) I recommend these books for ages 7 and up. I'm just not sure that children under 7 would be interested in the architecture aspect of these books.


Have you visited any of the New York Museums listed in these books?


Disclosure: A copy of each book was provided to me in order to facilitate my review. The opinions stated are completely mine.