cover image Lullabies Baby Songs

Lullabies Baby Songs

Jannat Messenger, Davies Maire Messenger. Dial Books, $11.95 (24pp) ISBN 978-0-8037-0491-6

English flowers and thatched cottages decorate this gentle volume of rhymes and lullabies. The verses are printed without music, including ""How Many Miles to Babylon,'' ``All the Pretty Little Horses'' and nine other less familiar songs. Some of the selections, rendered in jewel-like paintings, will require explication for young readers; in ``He Made for Me a Love Token,'' for example, the hero is sent ``o'er the billow'' by Cromwell. It's a disparate selection of songs and picturesa 20th century family reads in front of a coal-burning grate while on another page a Rossetti-like mother dandles her baby beside her spinning wheel as a windjammer sails past. The illustrations are detailed and colorful, full of embroidered dresses, painted wooden toys and lacy flowers. Ages 1-5. (March)