Lullabies Baby Songs (Dial Books for Young Readers) - Hardcover

PreSchool-Grade 2 The words of a lullaby without the music are only half a song. Since most of these verses are not, in themselves, melodic, and some are unfamiliar, readers are left wondering how they should sound. Without either the music or information about sources, these ``baby songs'' are merely loose connectors tying together a series of elaborately detailed illustrations of parents and children. The gray-bordered paintings set on pale peach pages convey a softness and a tenderness representative of the parent/child relationship. Muted colors and old-fashioned costumes, along with many artifacts of life in times past, present quaint and romanticized, sometimes folksy, images. Some of the lullabies included here are also in Jane Yolen's The Lullaby Songbook (HBJ, 1986). In Yolen's book, the focus is on the songs, with Stemple's arrangements and Mikolaycak's bold drawings both enhancing rather than distracting from the songs, as Messenger's paintings do. Those interested in a collection of lullabies would be better off with Yolen's book. Kay E. Vandergrift, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

English flowers and thatched cottages decorate this gentle volume of rhymes and lullabies. The verses are printed without music, including "How Many Miles to Babylon," "All the Pretty Little Horses" and nine other less familiar songs. Some of the selections, rendered in jewel-like paintings, will require explication for young readers; in "He Made for Me a Love Token," for example, the hero is sent "o'er the billow" by Cromwell. It's a disparate selection of songs and picturesa 20th century family reads in front of a coal-burning grate while on another page a Rossetti-like mother dandles her baby beside her spinning wheel as a windjammer sails past. The illustrations are detailed and colorful, full of embroidered dresses, painted wooden toys and lacy flowers. Ages 1-5.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.