Tigers and Sails and ABC Tales

Presents paintings from the collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to represent each letter of the alphabet, including works by artists from George Stubbs to Picasso.

PreSchool-Grade 2--The alphabet is the organizational framework to showcase the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts's Mellon collection in a picture-book format. On each spread, one page presents an American or European painting, while the other offers several iterations of the letter and a brief sentence. The text is awkward and pedestrian: "E is for earring gleaming all bright… G is for green of the grass all around." It neither rhymes nor flows. The reproductions alone are not compelling enough to sustain children's attention. Back matter includes a photograph of Paul Mellon as a boy and attributions for each image. Local libraries and museum visitors will be the primary audience for this offering.--Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
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