Anna's Art Adventure

Brought along to the art museum by her Uncle Harold, a bored Anna slips away during his lecture to find a bathroom. She asks directions of a man in a painting, who turns out to be no help (""I, Rembrandt van Rijn, haven't been to the bathroom for more than three hundred years""), then finds and dons a mysterious red dress that thrusts her into a progression of masterpieces. Her tour includes encounters with Munch, C zanne, Chagall and others; Jackson Pollack even lets her take a turn with his brush. At each stop, Anna learns a smidgen about the artist's style and technique, but she doesn't linger, as she's still in need of the toilet. Aside from the overworked bathroom schtick ("" `Just don't think about lemonade,' thought Anna, crossing her legs,"" as Van Gogh waxes eloquent about the many shades of yellow), Sortland's wry tone will attract readers' attention. However, allusions are often over children's heads (""But I am definitely not a pipe,"" says a painting of a pipe, while the artist, Ren Magritte, is not even mentioned until the endnotes). Elling, like Sortland a Norwegian, mimics most of the spotlighted artists. Some spreads are pure imitation--as in Anna's foray onto a Mondrian canvas--while others reserve the visual homage for just an integral detail (e.g., the nose of a woman modeling for Picasso) and still others simply incorporate a reference (e.g., Andy Warhol carries a case of soup cans). The strongest element here are the endnotes, which offer the art history lessons missing from the text. Ages 5-8. (July)