CAN YOU FIND IT? AMERICA

This latest entry in the popular Can You Find It? series draws its lively and accessible images from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Between the pages kids will find a wealth of such uniquely American icons as Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware, Thomas Hoveden’s affecting The Last Moments of John Brown and Grandma Moses’s homey Thanksgiving Turkey. Lovers of more contemporary art will enjoy sharing The Photographer, by Jacob Lawrence, Red Grooms’s quirky street scene, Chance Encounter at 3 A.M., and textile artist Faith Ringgold’s vibrant Story Quilt. Falken easily embraces the now-familiar by-the-numbers approach to the text: “Can you find 1 saxophone, 4 taxicabs…” etc. While some of the paintings and the “hidden” objects are easier than others to decipher, by book’s end child readers will have become practiced in looking at and thinking about the details among the widely divergent styles and schools of American art, and their grown-ups will have learned a great new way to engage children in the arts. A terrific entry in a reliable, handsome and affordable series. (Picture book. 4-8)