3-D ABC: A Sculptural Alphabet (Bob Raczka's Art Adventures)
Starred Review.PreSchool-Grade 5–Raczka has a great eye–a welcome attribute in the creation of art books for children. His strength lies in selecting images high in child appeal and combining them in fresh, provocative ways. This alphabetically arranged primer on 20th-century sculpture includes Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel, Constantin Brancusi's The Kiss (paired with Robert Indiana's Love), and Claes Oldenburg's Spoonbridge and Cherry. The selections are international in scope, and the media range from scrap metal and found objects to wood and fluorescent lights. The change between exterior and interior settings adds further interest. On single pages or double spreads, Raczka includes the piece itself, a phrase highlighting its relationship to the letter, and the attribution. In brief sentences, he builds a cumulative understanding of the subject: a sculpture can have moving parts, is not always something you can recognize, can make you look at things differently. So can Raczka. Pair this with Camay C. Murphy and Tom Miller'sCan a Coal Scuttle Fly?(Maryland Historical Society, 1996) to move from sampling a range of works to an appreciation of one artist's ability to transform everyday objects into three-dimensional art.–Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theLibrary Bindingedition.