Oooh! Matisse

Niepold and Verdu create a set of visual guessing games around five of Henri Matisse's late cut-and-pasted gouache-on-paper compositions. The book opens with a close-up of blue fleur-de-lys lobes on a goldenrod background and the question “What is this?” in blocky cut-out-style letters. Possible answers appear, in smooth script, on the following pages: “yellow, I am the sand/ and blue, I am a feather on the shore.” At last, the authors pull back to reveal a fanned-out plant shape: “oooh! I am a leaf.” Among additional questions and answers, two rabbit-ear-like forms turn out to be fingers handling a guitar. Varying the color and orientation of the type for emphasis and added play, Niebold and Verdu encourage free association before arriving at the more prescriptive conclusions (supported by Matisse's own figurative titles); only in a final spread are Matisse's original works shown in their entirety. This volume suggests pleasurable ways to look at abstract art, and treats Matisse's loose assemblages as cheerful precursors to Eric Carle's collages or Laura Vaccaro Seeger's word/image play. Ages 3-5. (Nov.)