Alphababies

Bright and charming illustrations combine art and photography to create an alphabet book in which each letter of the alphabet features a picture of an adorable baby in lovely settings and rhyming text.

PreSchool-A short rhyming text and colorful collages are featured in this concept book. Accompanying each letter is a cheerful descriptive line ("D is a duck, a sailor like me"). The collages of toddlers playing, reading, and sleeping are somewhat reminiscent of Anne Geddes's popular photographs of babies dressed up as vegetables, etc. However, here the full-color pictures of children's faces are superimposed on computer-generated drawings to create surprisingly appealing illustrations. This book works on several levels-as an ABC book, a rhyme, or as a playful look at preschoolers painting rainbows and flying kites.
Christine A. Moesch, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This abecedary confection, Golding's debut, combines photos of multiracial toddlers with highly stylized, computer-generated costumes, letters and settings. To illustrate the letter V, for example, a toddler's face is collaged atop a snappy tuxedo-and-tails ensemble, and he seems to wave a maestro's baton at a row of stick-figure violinists. The wee mermaid perched on a bubbly letter M sports a sleek, iridescent tail and luxuriously synthesized carrot-colored tresses topped with a crown. Some of the letters are cleverly costumed as well: the letter X, which here represents that old alphabet standby, the X-ray, is wallpapered in a motif of bones. The rhyming text doesn't sing with originality, but it is succinct and sufficiently catchy, with each rhyme completed across a single spread: "I is an igloo made from ice blocks/ J is for Jack who lives in a box." In a few compositions, the blending of child and computer art is awkward (especially where some of a child's limbs look photographed and others look computer-generated) and not all the letters are evenly integrated into the vignettes. The palette, too, runs to techno-colors, heightening the otherworldly, even eerie effect. But for the most part the conceit works, offering plenty of appeal to the dress-up instincts of the very young. Ages 2-5.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A fresh look at the alphabet: Golding combines photographed baby heads and pudgy arms and legs with computer-generated costumes and virtual settings. Every page has a large letter with the featured word below it situated against a colorful and surreal backdrop of computer images. Inserted into this is a picture of a child engaged in a related activity or pose. Beneath every illustration is a bouncy rhyme using the particular letter and word: ``C is a castle I built near the sea/D is a duck, a sailor like me.'' Golding's rhymes focus on common objects, effectively creating a balance to the imaginatively conceived illustrations; their execution, however, can be static, and when the proportions of the babies' bodies are off, the results are disconcerting, at least to adults. Most children won't notice, and will relish the jack-in-the-box, haughty queen, or exuberant band leader conducting an orchestra of violins. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Move over, Ann Geddes. Author-illustrator Golding combines computer graphics with photos of a multicultural crew of babies in a bright, busy alphabet book. Each picture integrates an action shot of a tot with a big, colorful letter of the alphabet and a featured word in big, black print. There's a miniature Mermaid perched on the letter M; a junior maharaja joyfully astride an enormous Elephant. Like a lot of computer art, the visuals lack a certain depth, and Golding's use of pattern is overdone. Yet the forms are simple, the objects are familiar, and the overall composition is good. The rhyming couplets that go along with the illustrations round out a concept book that, while erring on the side of cuteness, will entice the littlest infant-loving listeners. Julie Corsaro