BUT ART IS AWFUL!

A begrudging museum visitor experiences a shift in perspective.

After a child spends the morning drawing on the walls and finger painting the cat, Mom decides it’s a good idea to get out of the house. The dreaded destination? “Oh, please, please, please don’t make me go to a place as boring as an ART MUSEUM!” the child laments. Mom is undeterred, and as the pair peruse the museum, pausing to admire sculptures and paintings, the youngster’s skepticism slowly gives way to genuine curiosity. The protagonist’s attitude of affected disinterest (“Art is cool or interesting or whatever”) is belied by an obvious newfound enthusiasm. The child’s first-person narration omits quotation marks for an immersive, amusing stream-of-consciousness, and rhetorical observations—“What is this? Is it art?” “What does that even mean?”—might strike a familiar chord among many museum-goers, young and old. Yan’s soft-edged illustrations on white pages include nods to notable artists like René Magritte, Joan Miro, and Piet Mondrian, with several major art movements explained in the backmatter as “Stuff I Accidentally Learned at the Museum.” Parent and child have light-brown skin; other characters are diverse in skin tone.

A dream pick for art educators and potentially attitude-changing for youngsters dreading a museum trip.