HERE A FACE, THERE A FACE

The world takes on a decidedly animistic aspect in this photo album, as Alda’s camera finds faces on trees and buildings, in the kitchen and the bathroom, in patterns on rugs, windows, the fronts of post-office mailboxes and even the slashes on round loaves of bread. Some pictures have a put-together look, but most seem to be presented as found, in natural light and without extensive digital manipulation. As she suddenly turns skyward on the last page to depict a piglet-shaped cloud, her attention span isn’t as steady as it might be, and most of the faces she finds aren’t nearly as friendly looking as those in Francois Robert’s similar Find a Face (2004). Still, this will effectively spur young children to look more closely and imaginatively at their surroundings. A short rhymed text helps to identify each object or locale. (Picture book. 4-6)