A DAY WITH PICASSO

In the Adventures in Art series, Pfleger offers art lovers a chance to spend a day with Picasso, to glimpse his art, and to experience how this artist may have lived. Picasso’s wife, Franáoise, manages to deter an anxious gallery owner, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who arrives early to collect a new painting. Picasso, in the meantime, hasn’t finished the painting, and is snoozing late to make up for lost sleep. When he finally rises, he gets up to paint, eat lunch, and play with his children. In the afternoon he paints from a model and prepares his costume for that evening’s masquerade party. Interwoven throughout his daily routine are reproductions of his art and explanations of how they reflect his life. The reproductions are good, but so are the black-and-white photos of Picasso—with his family, just fooling around, or creating art. Even if the actual day is fictionalized, the ambience is spot on, making this a more effective biography for children than many standard narrative accounts. (Picture book. 8-12)