DINNER AT MAGRITTE'S

A book of oil paintings in the style of Magritte, placed in the context of a story. Pierre is bored sitting at home with his parents and goes to spend a day with his neighbors—RenÇ and Georgette Magritte. Dal° also drops in, and the four of them go for a walk in the woods, play croquet, and eat dinner together. This plotting is just enough to frame the illustrations, which depict Pierre and his famous friends surrounded by Magritte's most recognizable images—the man in the bowler with an apple in front of his face; people made of stone; woods in which the foreground and the background overlap (in a kind of aside, Dal° is shown looking at a melting clock on the wall). These pictures are guaranteed to win admirers in any audience unfamiliar with the work of Magritte (or of any of those latter-day practitioners of surrealism, Anthony Browne or Chris Van Allsburg, to name two). It will be easy for children who have read this book to become absorbed in the artist himself—Garland (Circus Girl, 1993, etc.) provides a perfect stepping stone to the real thing. (Picture book. 6-9)