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Dorling Kindersley has set a trend in educational books. It claims that
in an age of information saturation, theirs is the best approach to compete
with the easy access of TV and computers. It will turn its books into TV
screens. Concerned with the way the reader views a page and the way learning
is part visual, part literal, it has revised the design of children’s reference
books. Lexigraphic is the term coined to describe a method of presentation
that relies heavily on the acute placing of images and different levels
of text on the page.

This new format was introduced in 1988 with the now familiar Eyewitness
range. The main image and first source of information (or ‘Icon’ if we use
Dorling Kindersley-speak) is floated on a white background surrounded by
supporting notes, which in the lexigraphic code are called Primary Information,
even if the icon is a first source. In the words of its promotional guide,
‘the text helps to slow down pictures as the pictures speed up the words’.
Confused? Never mind, the Supplementary Information will refer you back
to the Icon where it is hoped that the child makes the right connections
about context.

Lexigraphics is undeniably successful in conveying information, but
does it allow a book to entertain as the publisher claims? Well, the trouble
with lexigraphics is that it reduces everything down to single images, nuggets
of information. At times it feels like reading a dictionary instead of Shakespeare’s
plays because all the same words will be there. There has to be more to
spark a child’s imagination. Dorling Kindersley would probably argue that
there are plenty of other publishers to develop a narrative approach but
most of them seem more interested in following the DK lead.

The Visual Dictionary of Dinosaurs is a detailed book using both drawings
and models it would be useful for all ages, which is one of DK’s main strengths.
Certainly it is essential for the committed dinosaur fan, who can now join
DK’s Dinosaur Club and get information from Jac-A-Saurus. Yet for all the
pop marketing this is a sober book.

By contrast, the Usborne Book of Dinosaurs (aimed at the under elevens),
with large Day-Glo dinosaurs and dramatic view-points which give a sense
of scale, is the more lively of the two. An engaging book for younger readers,
it is also a comprehensive guide, if less detailed than DK’s.

Usborne has a track record of producing quality children’s books in
a distinctive style. But DK’s influence can be seen in the way a spread
hinges round one dominant image. More typical of Usborne is Rainforest Wildlife,
a busy, colourful book suitable for a wide age range. Usborne understands
the power of narrative to convey information, and this book has the illustrated
death of a beetle by a trapdoor spider, and a Yanomani Indian story of why
birds have red feathers.

Water and Floating and My First Encyclopedia use a simplified version
of lexigraphics. In the first the claims to encourage investigation in science
feel justified, but My First Encyclopedia is like a cross between a Benetton
and an Early Learning Centre catalogue. While throughout these books, care
has been taken to choose child models of different races and abilities,
sud-denly the encyclopedia gives us a section called children of the world
in which a homogenous Western group appears with little attention given
to real difference. Dull.

Moy McCrory is a writer and critic.

* * *

Visual Dictionary of Dinosaurs Dorling Kindersley, pp 64, £9.99

My First Encyclopedia by Carol Watson, Dorling Kindersley, pp 80, £8.99

Water and Floating, by D. Evans and C. Williams, Dorling Kindersley,
pp 29, £5.99

The Usborne Book of Dinosaurs by Susan Mayes, Usborne, pp 32, £5.95
hbk, £3.95 pbk

Rainforest Wildlife by A. Cunningham, Usborne, pp 32, £5.95 hbk,
£3.95 pbk