I am a big fan of the art of Maira Kalman. Her style is unmistakable – she is a cartoon artist, painter, writer, and journalist who is at once whimsical, colorful, and witty, and a delight for both the eye and the intellect. She is especially known for her “visual reporting” as well as her iconic covers for the "New Yorker" magazine. She combines realism with fantasy and commentary all in the same pictures, bringing to mind artists as diverse as Ludwig Bemelmans and Marc Chagall, and yet she is always identifiable as herself.

The book features original gouache paintings of objects selected by Kalman from among pieces in a Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum exhibition on design. The author observes:

“Everything around you is designed. Your sneakers, our toothbrush, your toilet (yes!) and even our pencil.”

She demonstrates this by going through the alphabet, but not in a way you would expect. She doesn’t let the imperatives of the locations of letters in words define her choices; sometimes they appear first, but sometimes they don't. She starts out with A but the iconoclastic Kalman points out the A inside two words:

“...perhAps you should put on your thinking cAp….”

Similarly when she uses E, she shows us a dog and writes:

"E. (Except for YOUR DOG)
This is the cutest dog on EARTH with The Cutest EYEBROWS on EARTH."

For H she declares

H. This is not a Hippo. This is a RHINOCEROS.

Under J she writes:

“...just because you don’t like to comb your hair, that doesn’t mean you should throw out your COMB. That would be JUST NOT RIGHT.”

N is for toilet:

“NOW might be a Good Time to go the bathroom. No worries. We will wait for you. NOT A PROBLEM.”

And thus she proceeds to display items from the Hewitt exhibition.

Evaluation: I love books for kids that encourage them to think outside of the box. This book entertains and educates, all while breaking “the rules.” Kids and adults alike will be delighted. ( )

Sweet. Fun curation, but not her best. ( )