Know a Baby

Billed as an “educational adventure,” Know a Baby combines swelling piano music with computer graphics to present a disjointed amalgam of shapes, animals, and food. On mostly black backgrounds (though sometimes shifting to farm, space, and aquarium backdrops), objects flash and roll across the screen, including bouncing soccer balls, orange slices, flowers, stars, numbers, 3-D letters, animals, pool balls, and candy. Nothing is uniform: not the soundtrack (which includes Beethoven's “Fur Elise”), animation style, sound effects, or length of segments—and the glaring absence of any sort of connective narration makes the program all the more tedious. Although endorsed by Kids First Coalition for Quality Children's Media, and Family Approved by the Dove Foundation, there are an abundance of superior, better-focused, and similarly-priced programs available to enrich the minds of young viewers. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (J. Williams-Wood)