Reviewer: Craig L. Howe
Multimedia Consultant
Stamford, CT

About the time the author entered the first grade, I was wallowing through my Master's thesis. Separated by thirty years, we reached the same conclusion: color and design encourage learning.

Since I did my work, technology has undergone a sea-change. Ms. Kirschenbaum, a teacher, writer and designer in New York City, uses it to illustrate passages from her next day's lessons to beautiful designs. She discovered that her students responded with increased comprehension, retention and attentiveness - not a surprise for a generation reared on television, movies, the internet and video games. She believes and effectively advocates for the return of what she terms the "designer writer"; an artist who communicates with the written word and art. This combination has been absent since English Poet, William Blake.

That is, until now. This book is truly a work of art. True to its subtitle, it represents a marriage of Art, Literature, Education and Technology. Beautifully written and illustrated, it issues a clarion call to publishers to rethink their book designs.

If I had forgotten the finer points of my research years ago, reading this book refreshed the memories. I was not alone. I opted to start reading it on a multiple-leg airplane trip. The book's breathtaking illustrations quickly became the favored topic of conversation between my traveling companions and me.

As I explained the book's thesis to them, they volunteered occasions when they added color to simple messages and improved the desired response.

If it was obvious to us, the point should not be lost on publishers. If the author and her publisher can profit selling this unique work of art for [money], it is time for anyone who labors with words to rethink their presentation.

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