Seen a good book?

Jon Scieszka is a treasure. He's an entertaining professional author who has written some amazing children's books: The Frog Prince Continued, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Math Curse, The Time Warp Trio - series, The Stinky Cheese Man, Science Verse, and many more. He also has begun an initiative to get boys reading more - something he holds close to his heart, apparently.

In this book - Seen Art? - Scieszka tells the story of a character gone to meet his friend Art on the New York street corner that houses the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA - as so many of the book's characters call it). In looking for Art, the main character is pointed out many examples of Art - or at least what the others in the book think of as Art - including some of the greatest works of the modern art movements, all of which are featured quite prominently in the book. The main character makes no judgements but rather just questions why everyone keeps pointing out the various artworks to him instead of helping him find his friend.

As an adult reading the book, I found the one-note joke got old. I understand, his friend is named Art, but he's being shown Art. It's funny for the first couple of pages, but it doesn't hold up for the entire book.

The real treasure here lies in the beautiful reproductions of the famous works of art that would serve as a wonderful introduction to young children whose parents or teachers were hoping to expose them to a little Art without trekking to NYC.

If you're a parent of a small child, buy the book, hand it to them, read it with them, discuss what Art is.

If you're a childless adult, grab this book at the local bookstore (or even better, museum gift store - free Cincinnati Art Museum all the time) - flip through it, and buy it for a friend's kids.

If you don't know any of those "breeder" folks, put it back on the shelf.