Picasso: A Day in His Studio (Art for Children)

Gr 5-7-In Picasso, a curious child wanders into the artist's studio and the sculptures speak to him, telling him all about their creator's life and work. It is the most focused book of the three. In Miro, students exchange information while they strip and paint their school desks and later visit a Paris museum. While the conversational approach is a good idea, the execution is convoluted, confusing, and contrived. Da Vinci takes the form of letters exchanged between an uncle and niece. The vocabulary is more difficult than in the other books, the author presents obscure philosophical ideas about the Renaissance, and sentence structure is awkward. The full-color and black-and-white reproductions are of average quality, but many are small and indistinct. Titles in the ``First Impressions'' series (Abrams) are better choices to introduce these artists to young readers.-Alexandra Marris, Rochester Public Library, NY

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