Baby Shakespeare

The press release for Baby Shakespeare doth ask, "Who can give a child his first taste of poetry better than the Bard himself?" Frankly, I can think of several better first choices here, starting with Mother Goose. Aimed at young, insecure parents who only want the best for their children (especially when it's handed to them in easily consumable form--regardless of the age-appropriateness of the material), the latest entry in this phenomenally successful, slickly produced series aimed at budding baby geniuses (see Baby Mozart [VL-11/98] and Baby Bach [VL-5/99]) purports to explore "vocabulary through poems and video." After being introduced to Bard, a speechless hand puppet dragon, and treated to a quick overview of the ABC's song, the target audience of 1-4 year olds will see 12 segments that usually feature a wordless puppet skit, a key word (such as "leaf"), a drawing, video footage, and a poem or, more often, poem excerpt, containing the key word. In the "leaf" example, the poem is Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay," which concludes with the lines, "So Eden sank to grief/So dawn goes down to day/Nothing gold can stay," a rather melancholy choice for a kidvid, with a bit of a challenging allusion for a pre-schooler, one would think. After each poem or partial poem, chosen with no literary or child development rationale whatsoever, tykes will see the main attraction: endless shots of tax-deductible toys (information on same coming soon promises the company's website). Do you see the connection between little toy characters going up a motorized (no doubt pricey) escalator and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream? What fools these mortals be, indeed, who would buy into this faux brain starter that is little more than toy showcase pabulum. Not recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)