I admit, I just thumbed through this one in the store. It's cute, it's clever, it's thought provoking, and it gives decorative results. It just doesn't have the depth or breadth of Munari's "Tree," for example.

There are lots of good pieces here, some simple and some very subtle. The simple ideas are even simpler than a "potato print." To make a potato print:cut the spud half, incise the exposed flat surface, press the flat side into ink, then press the inked shape onto paper. Here, you just cut the end off the veggie, ink, and stamp. The veg defines its own shape, unique per individual cabbage or radicchio, but similar within a species.

What's cute is the simple stamping technique for creating many families of flower prints. What provokes thought is how the development of the species or individual creates such distinctive marks, and marks distinctive at such different levels. There is subtle biology at work here, made visible in the inked impression.

What lacks, however, is the direction in which a child artist may grow. Munari's "Trees", for example, starts even more simply, but gives even more directions to explore. "Trees" leaves open doors for the visual artist, fractal mathematician, or intelligent child. Munari just didn't rise to his own standard in this book.

This book is good, but Munari has done better. An art instructor may want this book, but amateurs like me can learn more elsewhere.

//wiredweird