A Picture Book Paean to the Golden Age of LPs
ANIMALS ALBUMS FROM A TO Z,by Cece Bell
The vinyl renaissance has been on for at least a decade, but I didn’t think LP love had penetrated beyond Gen Z — and Gen Alpha, or whatever we call the latest crop of teens and tweens — all the way down to the kindergarten and preschool sets. I’m not sure it really has, but it might now, thanks to “Animal Albums From A to Z,” by Cece Bell. This elaborately conceived yet winningly goofy picture book comprises 26 album covers — all allegedly vintage — beginning with “Accordion Americana,” by the Tejano musician Arnie Dillow (an armadillo who recorded for the Musica Avocado label), and ending with “Zigzag Zinnia,” by the Zydeco Zebras (on Zucchini Records). In between you will find “Jump Jive & Jazz,” by Jaguar Jamieson and Jenni Jerboa, and the self-titled “Mandy & the Meerkats,” a swankily styled girl group performing “the most marvelous music made here in the Motor City!”
The record jackets feature extensive song lists, and one tune on each gets the full treatment: lyrics by Bell plus an audio track composed and produced by her talented musician pals. (Readers can listen online or via the book’s QR code to not-yet hits such as “An Enchanted Elbow,” from “The Essential Ella Fontaine”; “Sometimes the Soup Is Salty,” from “Slow Surfin’ ’67” by the Sensational Sloth Boys; and “So Many Ungrateful Ungulates,” from “Uptown Ukulele” by Ursula Umbrellabird.)
‘An Enchanted Elbow’
From ‘The Essential Ella Fontaine.’
‘So Many Ungrateful Ungulates’
From ‘Uptown Ukulele,’ by Ursula Umbrellabird.
Bell — an author, artist and cartoonist — is best known for her graphic novel “El Deafo,” a 2015 Newbery honoree, which deals imaginatively and wittily with the fallout from her childhood hearing loss. She has written and illustrated several funny picture books, but she hasn’t done anything quite like “Animal Albums From A to Z” before. I don’t think anyone has.
