Snail Trail

PreS-Gr 1—A snail with a colorful collage shell invites readers to follow him in search of a work of art: "There's a special picture I'd like you to see./A famous artist based it on me!" A silver trail leads the eye from page to page, past famous modernist pieces like Jackson Pollock's Number 20 and Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory, with the snail commenting very briefly on each one. At last they come to Matisse's The Snail, and the little guy explains how this abstract piece is meant to resemble him: "He's made my body a block of blue,/with my shell a ebook of every hue." A final page shows a photo of the artist at work. While this whirlwind tour of modern art may be useful to teachers or docents working with young children, it does not stand alone. Without adult intervention, the story's complete lack of context results in nothing but a succession of pretty images. The pedestrian rhymes offer little in the way of art appreciation. Picture credits in tiny print inside the back cover provide the only identification for the famous works. In addition, the author undermines the very nature of Matisse's abstract Snail by suggesting that he modeled it directly upon an actual multicolored snail. Pass on this one.—Heidi Estrin, Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL