Meet Me at the Art Museum

K-Gr 3–In this picture-book introduction to art museums, Stub (a ticket stub left behind on the museum floor) meets Daisy (a docent’s name tag), who offers to show him around. They tour both public and private sections of the building, including the delivery room, galleries, education room, and cafeteria. Along the way, Daisy gives an overview of the daily operations of a museum, discussing preservation, security, curation, and conservation. At the end of the tour, Stub wanders into the restoration room, where he gets stuck to a collage and inadvertently becomes part of an exhibit himself. Back matter includes a list of the artworks pictured in the book. While the volume offers an adequate overview of museum operations, it is marred by sloppy design and unappealing characters. Stub and Daisy consist of a ticket stub and a name tag, respectively, with painted cartoon faces. Placing them beside works by Van Gogh and Seurat is visually jarring. Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman’s You Can’t Take a Balloon into the National Gallery (Dial, 2000) and sequels provide a more whimsical introduction to the subject.–Rachael Vilmar, Eastern Shore Regional Library, Salisbury, MD