Jazz Baby Review

"Brother's hands tap. Sister's hands snap ..." and before you know it, the whole family's got rhythm -- and rhyme -- as the impromptu music grows and proves infectious. Even the doe-eyed, grinning baby joins in with a loud "Go, man, go!" as everyone takes turns bopping and hip-hopping with him.

Wheeler's onomatopoeia (when words simulate sounds) careens along to a syncopated beat like electrons bouncing around an atom smasher; highly charged and fast, fast, fast. Sure, you can buy heavy parenting tomes written by Ph.Ds. on the beneficial effects of music on early childhood development, or you can just watch Jazz Baby in action.

And like all teeny-weeny boppers, he reaches the end of the day and his limits, just in time for his parents to slow the tempo down and switch to some blues-y lullabies.

Christie's gouache paintings are the perfect dance partner to Wheeler's punchy verses with elongated figures who seem to sway with the beat.