Gr 8 Up-An excellent introduction to this artistic movement. Demilly traces its beginnings to the work of early-20th-century French and German artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, and Fernand Leger. He then shows how Pop Art grew to comment particularly on American society, both in its glamour and its excesses. Each clear, one-page explanation of the various aspects of Pop Art is set opposite a one-half- or full-page, high-quality color reproduction of a famous work, from the instantly familiar Beatles's Sgt. Pepper's album cover to Mel Ramos's provocative Velveeta and Robert Rauschenberg's Retroactive II. Additional, smaller reproductions of equally well-known works, such as Jasper Johns's Flag and Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can I, are also included. Some of the illustrations contain nudity. The visual images are more prominent than the text, an appropriate design choice for a book commenting on a style known for its in-your-face effect. Several quotes from Pop artists emphasize a point being made by the author, and mini-biographies of the 10 individuals whose art is featured help to put their work in perspective. This is a clear, easy-to-follow description of an often-misunderstood artistic style. The use of high-quality paper results in better reproductions than those found in Judy Galens and Mark Swartz's Artists: From Michelangelo to Maya Lin (Gale, 2001). Readers with a fascination for modern art will welcome this well-written book.-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In 1917, the French artist Marcel Duchamp put a urinal in an exhibition in New York and called his exhibit Fountain. That's just one example of Pop Art, a movement closely associated with American culture, but which we're told here actually had roots in Europe. This assemblage of anecdote, history, and art, part of the Adventures in Art series, is strung together in a rather unfocused chronological fashion, but it still contributes some perspective on the various ways the art has reflected and parodied aspects of popular culture. The art itself is what will draw the audience: crisp reproductions of  examples that are, by turns, comical, outrageous (a photo of Claes Oldenburg's soft sculpture of a giant hamburger), suggestive, and sometimes overtly sexual (a muscle-bound guy holding a giant tootsie pop in front of his scanty speedos, for instance). There are no further resources to help readers get a firmer grasp on the movement, but the concluding two-page spread comprises brief biographies of all the artists named in the text. Add this to collections where more books on the subject are needed.--Zvirin, Stephanie Copyright 2007 Booklist From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.