The Shape Game - Softcover

ANTHONY BROWNE is the acclaimed author and illustrator of such prize-winning bestsellers as GORILLA (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Kurt Maschler Award), WILLY THE WIMP and ZOO (winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal). Anthony Browne's first picture book for Doubleday was published last year to great acclaim. VOICES IN THE PARK won the 1998 Kurt Maschler Award and was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Anthony was also the winner of the 2000 Hans Christan Andersen Award for Illustration.

Kindergarten-Grade 4-Browne's latest foray into the fantastic is part autobiography and part outgrowth of his residency at the Tate Britain Gallery where he conducted workshops for inner-city children. In the opening scene, the adult Browne sits at his drawing board, sketching his family. He goes on to describe the day "that changed my life forever"-the one when his long-suffering mother took her three "boys" (Anthony, his brother George, and their dad) to an art museum. The palette reflects the mood of the father and sons: it's brown. Young viewers who are looking closely will start to see shapes in the graffiti on the street and surprises in the museum's imposing facade, and Dad's juvenile humor will tickle their funny bones. As the family tours the galleries, Browne uses a variety of techniques to maintain interest in the reproductions: labels explaining the symbolism, spot-the-difference comparisons, scary paintings coming to life, and family members appearing inside the frames. As the foursome progress and the mood lifts, the colors brighten, reaching a dazzling intensity at the riverfront climax. The piece de resistance is mother's game, played on the train ride home, in which one brother draws a shape and the other turns it into something. Endpapers provide plenty of samples, but children will be reaching for their markers before the book is closed. Not since Bob Knox's The Great Art Adventure (Rizzoli, 1993; o.p.) has museum going been so much fun.
Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
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