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This is a lovely, highbrow alphabet book, ideal for babies and toddlers who can still be carried or cajoled into museums to gaze at paintings. For each letter, there is an image taken from a work in the collection of the Getty Museum. The pictures are fascinating and complex: A is for a 17th-century artist with a dapper mustache who is giving a drawing lesson to two rapt onlookers. B is for bumble... More

This is a lovely, highbrow alphabet book, ideal for babies and toddlers who can still be carried or cajoled into museums to gaze at paintings. For each letter, there is an image taken from a work in the collection of the Getty Museum. The pictures are fascinating and complex: A is for a 17th-century artist with a dapper mustache who is giving a drawing lesson to two rapt onlookers. B is for bumblebee, a fat little fellow riffling the petals of a luscious-looking camellia. C is for a candle that softly lights the delicate features of a young French maidservant. D is for an aristocratic, black-and-white dog gazing attentively at his overbred master. A wild-looking monkey grasps a bunch of green grapes on the G pages, and St. Peter's huge key (K) to the kingdom of heaven looms heavily.

The back of the book contains thumbnails of the paintings from which the details have been culled, and in most cases they are much larger, more complex compositions. This may have the subtle effect of teaching both babies and parents to scrutinize paintings even the most devoted art lovers sometimes pass by--yet another 18th-century family portrait, a big Renaissance cityscape, a Dutch still life of flowers. For it turns out, of course, that these fancy old warhorses are filled with exciting little passages of drama, charm, and great beauty. --Peggy Moorman

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