ERNI CABAT'S MAGICAL WORLD OF MONSTERS

A showcase for a durable painter whose swirling fantasies bring back the days of psychedelic art. Each spread is given to a different monster (dragon, griffin, basilisk, kraken, chimera, etc.), introduced with a page of well-chosen words from the field's most recognized expert and illustrated with a striking full-page portrait. Cabat suspends his figures on flat, contrasting backgrounds in bright colors; and though he constructs them with elaborate serpentine flowers, details that echo Arabic or Hebrew calligraphy, and patterns of leaves, dots, and checkerboards, their fundamental forms and characters still sing out. This lacks the sophisticated range of styles and feelings Leonard Baskin's A Book of Dragons (1985) and Imps, Demons, Hobgoblins, Witches, Fairies and Elves (1984), but its visual extravagance will widen the eyes of browsers and budding artists alike. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 8+)