Synopsis
Paying homage to pop art masters Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Oldenburg, an alphabet book packs a good deal of punch with its bright depictions of everyday objects, from "airplane," to "Zing! Zoom! Zap!"
Reviews
PreSchool-Grade 5Isadora, whose impressionistic-style images have beguiled many a reader, turns her hand to pop art in this exuberant alphabet book. In a tribute to Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Claes Oldenburg, she matches letter with object in imaginative ways that are right on a childs wavelength. B, for example, finds King Kong heading up the Empire State Building, H showcases three plump hot dogs (each with a different topping), N sports a long-nosed Pinocchio, U finds an umpire calling safe as a player slides into base, and Y consists of a series of swinging yo-yos. The artist carefully varies the pages: some are double-page spreads, such as W, where a spider crawls over a large but fragile-looking web; others repeat an image, such as P, which features four pigs in either blue, olive, lavender, or pink, all shaded with black dots in comic-book style. The energy and bright colors will captivate young viewers; for older readers, this could make a great lead-in to Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordans The Painters Eye (Delacorte, 1994).Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
With a tip of her hat to such '60s icons as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, Isadora (The Little Mermaid) whips out a zinger of an ABC book. Playing her retro riff across the pages, she blends strongly linear graphics and repetitive images with such signature elements of pop as polka-dot shading and bold, cartoon-like outlining. For the letter H, for instance, a trio of hot dogs parade across a white background, while a quartet of pigs in harmonious shades of pink, green and blue do a Warholesque turn for the letter P. Primary colors combine with accents in aqua, hot pink and avocado green to resurrect (and even superimpose) visual puns from the past, such as a daisy, that ubiquitous '60s symbol, held by The Manchurian Candidate's Queen of Hearts (for the letter Q, of course). The book ends with a "Zing! Zoom! Zap!", the words encased in the kind of explosively jagged comic book bubbles that mark Roy Lichtenstein's works. Even the endpapers and dust jacket continue the theme, as a sassy "Bye-Bye" bids readers farewell from the back cover. Baby boomers will find this artistic homage a nostalgic hoot, while their offspring will appreciate its verve. All ages.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Pop art has a lot of built-in appeal: swathes of color that nearly vibrate in their intensity; unambiguous shapes and lines; forms reduced and flattened into vivid patterns. Isadora has taken these tenets and produced an homage to pop artto the works of Roy Lichtenstein above all othersin an alphabet book that is at once both retro and modern. The text is minimal, with one letter represented by one word through the alphabet. The palette of images, however, is eye-catching and bears multiple viewings gracefully. Some letters have double-page spreads, such as ``T Train'' with its gleaming gray Santa Fe engine in the orange desert with a huge sun, a lemon-yellow sky, and green saguaros. Others, such as ``K Kitchen'' are a series of small cropped views on a single page: readers glimpse the spout of a red kettle, most of a green toaster, a bisected view of dishwashing detergent. Occasionally, a single image fills the page, as in the playing card for ``Q Queen.'' The pages are satisfying, visually stimulating, and fun. (Picture book. 3-8) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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