ABC POP!

Pop art has a lot of built-in appeal: swathes of color that nearly vibrate in their intensity; unambiguous shapes and lines; forms reduced and flattened into vivid patterns. Isadora has taken these tenets and produced an homage to pop art—to the works of Roy Lichtenstein above all others—in an alphabet book that is at once both retro and modern. The text is minimal, with one letter represented by one word through the alphabet. The palette of images, however, is eye-catching and bears multiple viewings gracefully. Some letters have double-page spreads, such as “T Train” with its gleaming gray Santa Fe engine in the orange desert with a huge sun, a lemon-yellow sky, and green saguaros. Others, such as “K Kitchen” are a series of small cropped views on a single page: readers glimpse the spout of a red kettle, most of a green toaster, a bisected view of dishwashing detergent. Occasionally, a single image fills the page, as in the playing card for “Q Queen.” The pages are satisfying, visually stimulating, and fun. (Picture book. 3-8)