BLACK AND BLANCO!

The San Antonio Museum of Art, the San Antonio Public Library Foundation and Trinity University Press come together to showcase some of the museum’s most interesting art in this bilingual—English and Spanish—offering.

Building upon the success of previous collaborations—1, 2, 3, Si!: A Numbers Book in English and Spanish (2011), Colores Everywhere!: Colors in English and Spanish (2012) and Hello, Circulos!: Shapes in English and Spanish (2012)—the minds behind this newest offering keep doing what works. They provide clear, crisp images of visually appealing works of art along with simple text in English and Spanish. The final pages offer more detail about the origins and ownership of the featured pieces. Although the art selections are intriguing, this outing suffers a tiny bit for lack of a coherent theme; it is an unabashedly varied collection of (mostly) black-and-white art with text on each page that attempts to engage young readers with the images while making no connections to what comes before or after. A companion volume, Animal Amigos (978-1-59534-154-9), has a clearer focus. Nevertheless, both children and adults will find much to savor in these titles—so much, in fact, that they may even be inspired to connect with their inner Picassos.  

Though the title as a whole feels a bit disjointed, the stunning images alone make it worth a look or two (or 20).