This series deals with different aspects of art and how they relate to society, in this case an art form and an artist. In Pablo Picasso, Kallen at first focuses on the artistÆs early life, which contained some hardships and tragedies. He exhibited his extraordinary talent from childhood, yet when his sister was gravely ill, he vowed to give up art if she lived. She did not, and the world has been the recipient of his work. Throughout his life, with every new female relationship, he changed his art style. He was not interested in the status quo and often ôinventedö different art forms, including cubism as seen in Les Demoiselles DÆAvignon. In later life, he embraced social commentary and protest. Guernica and Charnel House are just two of his anti-war paintings. Graphic Design covers the history of this art form from the first symbols or images, sometimes called pictographs or pictograms, to the present-day use of electronics. Graphic design is meant to be an art that communicates ideas using graphics and sometimes words. It is demonstrated in many different types of art: book cover illustrations, posters, magazines, consumer products, album covers, computer Web sites, and more. A successful example is the famous World War I military recruiting poster of Uncle Sam pointing out with the words ôI Want You for U.S. Army.ö Both books have informative sidebars of related facts and many photographs of the art. For readers whose appetites are whetted, a very short list of further reading and Web sites is included. Although covering just the tip of the iceberg, more sources can be gleaned from the many source notes for each chapter. Kallen includes so much information that readers are bound to learn many interesting facts about art, and history as well.ùJane Van Wiemokly.