3-D ABC: A Sculptural Alphabet
Written and illustrated by Bob Raczka
Millbrook Press; $23.95
32 pp.; ISBN-13: 978-0761394563

Review by Amy Brozio-Andrews

Alphabet picture books are a staple of children's reading lives, but most of them feature everyday objects that are already familiar to kids. More than just your typical ABC book though, is Bob Raczka's 3-D ABC: A Sculptural Alphabet. Raczka's book marries art and alphabet to give young readers a treat for their eyes as well as their ears. Readers can enjoy 3-D ABC on three levels, the traditional "a is for …, b is for…," plus the basic fundamentals of sculptural art, plus the illustrations themselves, photographs of 20th century sculpture that illustrate the ideas presented in the text.

The clear and colorful photographs are well-labeled with the name of the sculpture, the artist, year, and current gallery location. Each piece clearly reflects the art-related point Raczka makes through the simple and very brief explanatory text that accompanies each letter; for example, "H is for Horse" and "A sculpture can be pieces of scrap metal that the sculptor finds and forms into a familiar-looking shape…" are paired with a picture of Deborah Butterfield's Ikezuke, in which scrap metal has been fashioned into the shape of a horse.

Raczka's careful choices in text and art complement each other seamlessly and draw the reader into the ideas of the words and pictures almost simultaneously. Offering young readers a primer on contemporary sculpture, he covers everything from various sculptural styles (kinetic, relief, ready-made) to sculpting materials (metal, old car parts, light, etc.) and even ideas (the dramatic Concert for Anarchy (Rebecca Horn, 1990) is a piano suspended upside down, insides on the outside; the more subtle but no less dramatic Bus Riders (George Segal, 1964) depicts three riders on bus seats with a fourth person standing behind an empty seat). Raczka acknowledges that art holds different meaning for different people depending on the viewer, and invites readers to judge the sculptures depicted in the book for themselves.

While the ABC aspect will surely be appealing to younger readers just learning the alphabet, and they are likely to enjoy picking out the letters and corresponding objects from the pictures, the art-oriented text is geared toward slightly older readers, say, middle to upper elementary school grades. 3-D ABC is definitely accessible to younger and older readers, but it's the older readers who will get the most out of the book, able to take away the fundamentals of sculpture and apply it to art projects of their own.

Bob Raczka, creative director of a Chicago ad agency, has published previous books on art for children, including Unlikely Pairs, Art Is..., and More Than Meets the Eye. From the whimsical (a giant cherry on a spoon) to surprising (two obelisks balanced one on top of the other, point to point), the photographs that Raczka has chosen are a great mix of color, perspective, angle, and depth that will inspire children to look carefully and differently at the world around them, engaging in creative work and play with confidence.