13 Art Movements Children Should Know

Gr 6 Up—Educ.tors and art-loving parents would agree with this book's title, though kids themselves might feel differently. The rare child who voluntarily peruses this work would learn as much by visiting a good art museum. Basic facts about each movement, which include Romanesque, impressionism, surrealism, cubism, and pop art, are offered in very brief, mostly double-spread chapters containing excellent color reproductions of representative works. However, there isn't enough information here for report writers. Entries begin with helpful features, such as fact boxes containing salient information on when these movements began and ended and subjects and characteristics of the artwork. Also useful are time lines that include artists who flourished during each period and historical, literary, and artistic events that occurred concurrently. Occasional "Good to Know" sidebars provide additional facts. Pointless "Crafts Ideas" and "Quizzes" are haphazardly distributed throughout, as are suggestions for further reading that do not include full bibliographic information. Oddly, in a book targeted to children, c. ("circa") and AD are not defined. Finger also neglects to identify the word medieval as referring to the Middle Ages and uses it interchangeably with Romanesque. The otherwise informative captions accompanying the reproductions rarely indicate the countries in which the owning museums are located, and some typos and misspellings add to the flaws. This title might find an audience in larger public library collections or in schools with art history units, but where budgets are limited, pass on this one.—Carol Goldman, Queens Library, NY