Think art too highbrow a topic? Here's a look at three children's books that make it accessible for even toddlers just learning to read.

SEEN ART?
By Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith
Viking/Hardcover/48 pages/ £7.35 or S$20/amazon.co.uk

A stout curly-haired boy looking for his friend asks a passer-by, 'Have you seen Art?'

'MoMA?' the lady responds.

'Uh, no, he's just a friend.'

Such dry wit peppers the dialogue in this picture-intensive book, which doubles as a crash course on more than 40 artworks on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

The boy is waylaid by museum-goers impatient to show him what art is, in their own view.

But Scieszka handles the themes light-heartedly, and the befuddled boy has only one thing on his mind: 'Yeah, I see what you mean. Very intense. But I'm looking for Art.'

Some critics have griped about the small, diminutive reproductions of actual artworks on the page.

But the tight squeeze epitomises the concept of a dizzying whirlwind museum tour. And the uniquely narrow and long hardcover format is suitably modern art-ish.

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GETTING TO KNOW THE WORLD'S GREATEST ARTISTS: ANDY WARHOL
By Mike Venezia
Children's Press/ Paperback/32 pages/ from £3.48/ amazon.co.uk

Warhol's beginnings and his bursting into the Pop Art scene are tackled here, but Venezia skilfully avoids condescension even as he simplifies potentially abstract concepts.

Take the conversational tone: 'It's kind of like when you see the same TV commercials all the time or the same ads.'

Venezia's 48-title biographical series focusing on artists, which also includes such giants as Matisse, Cezanne and Rembrandt, comes as a rare find.

A sumptuous range of reproductions of Warhol's iconic sketches and prints is somewhat uneasily accompanied by the occasional cartoon caricature of his life.

But the narrative remains coolly realistic, straightforward and mature enough to pull off this kid-friendly Warhol 101.

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ART
By Patrick McDonnell
Little, Brown and Company/
Hardcover/48 pages/£7.20/ amazon.co.uk

There's no stopping an adorable tyke named Art from doodling, blotching and drawing squiggles when he's inspired.

He zig-zags across the pages to produce art that seems right out of Jackson Pollock's expressionist palette and the images burst in an explosion of colour.

When he wakes up from a nap, 'Art sees his art on the refrigerator held there by magnets (stars and a heart), put there by Mother, 'cause Mother loves Art.'

Adoring parents and kids alike will enjoy the warm familiarity of this very simple story created by Mutts creator McDonnell, whose comic strip sensibilities render it hard to resist.

And who knows, after reading this, your little tyke might be inspired to create some art of his own.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Apr 27, 2008.