SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL A TO Z

For all those toddlers who really dig indie films….

A is for Paul Thomas Anderson, director of such baby faves as Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, and Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s searing and surreal meditation on AIDS at the end of the 20th century. I is for I Shot Andy Warhol; N is for Napoleon Dynamite; U is for U2 3D. Q is for Quentin Tarantino, but T is for Lily Tomlin and Stanley Tucci, demonstrating an irritating inconsistency, but hey, who cares, this book is just for babies, right? Of course not. This is a smug book for smug adults, masquerading as a book for the smallest children. Its board pages will respond to the urgings of little fingers, and the capital letters on each spread are nice and big, printed in bright colors that pop against the cream-colored backgrounds. But even as the subject matter is hopelessly beyond the ken of the book’s putative audience, the illustrations—by 27 artists, none of whom will be found in the average picture-book section—are characterized by a self-conscious, often surreal aesthetic that the developing vision of babies will find impenetrable.

D is for don’t waste your money, at least not if you’re planning on giving this to a baby.