Ages 3^-7. In a radical departure from her picture books about the dance, Isadora offers an homage to pop art in the form of an alphabet book. From Airplane to Zing! Zoom! Zap! her vividly colored images with their heavy black outlines evoke the graphic look of Roy Lichtenstein and, to a lesser degree, Andy Warhol. A few of her most arresting images--a gorgeously geometric xylophone and a black-and-white image of a trumpeter (Louis Armstrong?)--may be more appealing to adults than to children. But, for the most part, her visuals are kid friendly: a jack-in-the-box, hot dogs, lollipops, etc. That the images range in size from double-page spreads to single pages subdivided into as many as nine small images adds dynamic touches to the page turn; and a number of the pages--notably, Yo-Yo and Kitchen--are inherently kinetic. Isadora's artfully energetic book will appeal to eyes of all ages. Michael Cart

Pop art has a lot of built-in appeal: swathes of color that nearly vibrate in their intensity; unambiguous shapes and lines; forms reduced and flattened into vivid patterns. Isadora has taken these tenets and produced an homage to pop art'to the works of Roy Lichtenstein above all others'in an alphabet book that is at once both retro and modern. The text is minimal, with one letter represented by one word through the alphabet. The palette of images, however, is eye-catching and bears multiple viewings gracefully. Some letters have double-page spreads, such as ``T Train'' with its gleaming gray Santa Fe engine in the orange desert with a huge sun, a lemon-yellow sky, and green saguaros. Others, such as ``K Kitchen'' are a series of small cropped views on a single page: readers glimpse the spout of a red kettle, most of a green toaster, a bisected view of dishwashing detergent. Occasionally, a single image fills the page, as in the playing card for ``Q Queen.'' The pages are satisfying, visually stimulating, and fun. (Picture book. 3-8)

In a drastic departure from her recent loose gouache style, Isadora has created a striking alphabet book in homage to the pop art she admired as a child. Bold black outlines, flat areas of color, and large halftone dots and lines bring to mind Lichtenstein, the most obvious inspiration. But the pacing is pure Isadora, revealing a vitality that harks back to Ben's Trumpet and City Seen from A to Z. Each letter is represented by an everyday object familiar to children. ""K kitchen"" divides the page into nine squares, each dynamically designed, showing part of an object: a red teakettle, the knobs of a stove (seen from a child's perspective), a colander whose perforations repeat the halftone dot motif. ""P pigs"" displays four identical pigs rendered in different colors, + la Warhol, while ""Q queen"" on the facing page shows another repetition with its enlarged representation of a face card. Perhaps the most successful spread is X-Y, showing sound and motion. The xylophone on the left is surrounded by abstract shapes that read as a depiction of percussive sound. ""Y yo-yo"" on the right shows another nine-square division full of motion and speed with a portion of a yo-yo emerging from a different angle in each square. Repeated viewings reveal similarly subtle juxta-positions within spreads. Simultaneously complex and unpretentious, this alphabet book deserves a long shelf life. lolly robinson (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In a starred review, PW wrote, "With a tip of her hat to such '60s icons as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, Isadora whips out a zinger of an ABC book. Baby boomers will find this artistic homage a nostalgic hoot, while their offspring will appreciate its verve." Ages 3-8. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

PreS-Gr 5Isadora, whose impressionistic-style images have beguiled many a reader, turns her hand to pop art in this exuberant alphabet book. In a tribute to Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Claes Oldenburg, she matches letter with object in imaginative ways that are right on a childs wavelength. B, for example, finds King Kong heading up the Empire State Building, H showcases three plump hot dogs (each with a different topping), N sports a long-nosed Pinocchio, U finds an umpire calling safe as a player slides into base, and Y consists of a series of swinging yo-yos. The artist carefully varies the pages: some are double-page spreads, such as W, where a spider crawls over a large but fragile-looking web; others repeat an image, such as P, which features four pigs in either blue, olive, lavender, or pink, all shaded with black dots in comic-book style. The energy and bright colors will captivate young viewers; for older readers, this could make a great lead-in to Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordans The Painters Eye (Delacorte, 1994).Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.