Review : Speeding Down the Spiral: An Artful Adventure

Title: Speeding Down the Spiral: An Artful Adventure
Author: Deborah Goodman Davis
Publisher: DGDFA
Released: December 2012
Source: publisher (NetGalley)

Format : kindle edition

Genre : art, children

Rating : 3 stars

Book blurb 

One sunny Sunday, Lizzie and her baby brother Ben visit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City with their father. They take the elevator to the top floor and begin walking down the ramp to look at the art. After an e-mail distracts Dad and Lizzie comes face-to-face with a giant growling dog, the stroller begins speeding down the spiral with Baby Ben. And a quiet museum trip turns into a madcap chase, with Lizzie in the lead, followed by a museum guard, a teacher, students, and people with earphones, listening to an audio tour. The story is coupled with the colorful and lively illustrations by Sophy Naess, bringing to life not only the Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece of modern architecture but encouraging children and adults to see for themselves the Bourgeois, Brancusi, Cézanne, Chagall, Giacometti, Gonzalez-Torres, Kandinsky, Lichtenstein, Miró, Picasso, and Warhol paintings and sculptures featured in this book, along with the many other great works of art in the Guggenheim's collection.

My thought

This book is about Lizzie, her dad, and her brother’s visit to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. It was summertime and Lizzie really wished they could be going to a water park instead. When her dad gets distracted Lizzie ends up chasing her brother down the spiral ramp that is in the middle of the museum.A part that made me laugh was when Ben flew across the opening of the spiral ramp. On that part I also felt like I was seeing through the main character’s eyes because I bet Lizzie was afraid her brother was going to fall down the middle of the spiral. That’s how I felt too.

i think many can relate to Lizzie's initial attitude toward visiting the museum. I got a huge kick out of the book's slapstick humor; a snowball of chaos ensues as more and more people join in to chase the runaway stroller down the spiral ramp.

The end of the book contains more details information about each piece of art that appears in the story, as well as a brief glossary of art terms.

I like the book because it was funny. I also liked how it told me about some art pieces that are displayed in the Guggenheim. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.