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These two large volumes give the results of studying the paintings of 150 children between the ages of two and five. Case studies and observations of the activities of the children were made daily throughout a second year, and a periodic follow-up of as many children as were available was still going on when the book was published. The study was carried out in five Winnetka nursery schools, of which the authors were the Staff Director and Psychologist respectively. Two observers besides the teachers were present in each group every day throughout the period of study, and the nuclear staff met weekly, or more often, to discuss the children and their needs and review the general situation of their lives at home and at school. Rorschach tests were given by an outside expert to thirty of the children; the authors say that the findings from these, which are to be published separately, correspond in a high degree with their own.
There are 120 illustrations, mostly coloured reproductions of the children's paintings. A few photographs of their other products, such as block buildings, are also included.
The first volume begins with a description of the general approach. This is summarized by the authors in a quotation from a novel by Louis Danz: '… Painting isn't something you just see with your eyes. It's something you feel with your whole body. It is the design of your hurt or your happiness, and when other people see it, they feel the hurt or the happiness just as you did.' The study as a whole consists of a most detailed mass of information which is intended to throw light both on the particular hurts or happinesses of life that these children were experiencing, and also on how these facts can be correlated with specific qualities in their paintings. Usually three or four pictures by one child are shown, but in two instances ten or twelve are given, thus showing most interesting phases of development. Case histories of the children whose paintings are reproduce