A CHILD'S BOOK OF ART

An enchanting alternative to Scarry's clumsily drawn ``Word Books'': an author whose specialty is introducing children to fine art (I Spy: An Alphabet in Art, 1992) presents almost 30 popular topics (including family, pets, action words, shapes, opposites, seasons, faces, ways to travel, ``A Time to Play,'' and, finally, ``A Time for Peace'') illustrated with handsomely reproduced paintings from six continents and many periods. With remarkable felicity, she arrays works in disparate styles into spacious, elegantly harmonious topical spreads; e.g., four rather quiet vignettes of ``Wild Animals'' on the left (a DÅrer hare, a tortoise from a Turkish manuscript, an aboriginal Australian kangaroo, and a tiger by Henri Rousseau) are balanced by a vibrant, full-page assemblage of ``lots of animals'' (a 16th-century Indian painting). A sensible note encourages parents and teachers to ``treat these pictures as you would those in any other picture book''; the captioning words lead beautifully into many concepts that might be discussed—e.g., on the ``Five Senses'' spread, a 17th-century parent is ``smelling'' as she changes a diaper; a Cassatt child is ``seeing'' herself in a mirror; Michelangelo's Adam is ``touching'' God. Full citations for the art. A delightful, mind-expanding book. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 2+)