Faces for Baby: Twelve More Works by Famous Artists to Explore with Your Child

K-Gr 5—This follow-up to Art for Baby (Candlewick, 2009) contains 12 works of modern and contemporary art that feature faces. Each one is labeled with a title, artist's name, and date and is set on glossy, white board-book pages. The images incorporate a variety of colors, shapes, and styles. There is the checkered abstract face by Paul Klee, and the colorful doll-like face entitled Coney Island 'II' by Donald Baechler. Yoshitomo Nara created a pale, sleepy face for the piece Well; Julian Opie used inkjet on paper on aluminum to make the shadowy face with bold outlines that appears in Daniel. Peel has included artists from 12 different parts of the world and chosen works that feature males and females, children and adults. The majority of the faces express positive emotions such as happiness or contentment, but images such as Camarade by Zhang Xiaogang and Untitled, from Afromuses (Couple) by Chris Ofili have ambiguous expressions. Children can peer at their own faces in the large circular mirror found at the back of the book. The inside cover of the front page gives one to two sentences about the artists and their work. Use this book with elementary grade children (but cover the word Baby on the cover) along with Arlene Alda's Here a Face, There a Face (Tundra, 2008) for an art class on faces or self-portraits.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada