"Bob Goes Pop" by Marion Deuchars (Laurence King Publishing)

I remember the first time I properly fell in love with pop art, mostly through the works of artists like Roy Liechtenstein and Andy Warhol. But in "Bob Goes Pop!" by Marion Deuchars, everyone's favourite artistic bird hears that there's a new artist in town - a sculptor called Roy whose works are causing something of a fuss in Bob's neighbourhood.

"But I'M the best artist in town!" squawks Bob, but when he finally sees Roy's work, it lights a fire of inspiration under Bob's tail feathers - and Bob's world is about to POP, POP, POP!

Bob is determined to reclaim his crown as top artist but as he enters into friendly competition with Roy, they soon realise that competing with each other can be counter-productive.

There's a nasty showdown after Bob surreptitiously spies on Roy's new project - but Bob sees the error of his ways, and together he and Roy realise that they can make the most amazing art in the world if they can work together to achieve great things.

Marion expertly plays with the concept of pop art through this engaging story, and children will love joining Bob in finding out what pop art means - perhaps even indulging their own curiosity about art movements and why the Pop Art movement was so hugely influential and inspirational in the mid to late 20th century, and continues to be such an amazing branch of the art world even today.



Sum this book up in a sentence: Marion cleverly works in several amazing works of art, inspired by real-life artists in the pop-art movement such as Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenburg and Jeff Koons - offering a fabulous little story to serve as a great introduction for kids to begin their own appreciation of amazing art and awesome friendships.

"Bob Goes Pop" by Marion Deuchars is out now, published by Laurence King Publishing (kindly supplied for review).