cover image Cherished Thoughts with Love

Cherished Thoughts with Love

Anne Geddes. Andrews McMeel Publishing, $29.95 (124pp) ISBN 978-0-7407-5573-6

Geddes' distinctive photographs of dressed-up children and babies atop flowers or in cans took the world by storm in the 1990s, and soon cards, calendars, debit cards and t-shirts featured her work. In this latest photo installment, Geddes places a quote about childhood alongside each photo, thus the words of Hubert Humphrey, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Elie Wiesel, Magic Johnson and FDR are presented-some slightly out of context (for instance, Depression-era president Herbert Hoover's comment that ""Children are our most valuable natural resource"")-for consideration when eyeing a tiny baby or a pregnant belly. Many of the photographs are of the overly familiar baby-on-a-leaf-or-flower motif, but there are a few striking shots, including one reminiscent of a crime scene that shows a baby's feet and head protruding from what appears to be a tattered burlap sack. (""The finest inheritance you can give a child is to allow it to make its own way, completely on its own two feet,"" notes Isadora Duncan in the picture's accompanying quote.) However, the soft focus close-ups of tiny faces or hands are beautiful, and the juxtaposition of pregnant woman and babies will make this a big player on the baby shower circuit. Photos.