THE GOODS : Adding Another Dimension to Picture Books

Kids love computers. Kids love picture books.

So it stands to reason that computerized adaptations of beloved picture books, using the multimedia capabilities of CD-ROM, would be wonderful for kids.

It’s not so simple.

In these early days of CD-ROM development, several children’s books have already been embellished with the animation, stereo sound and video clips that this medium has to offer. But in most cases these audiovisual components have been piled onto the original work in a manner that at best adds little, and at worst is just gimmicky.

Finally, a just-released CD-ROM uses the medium in such an imaginative fashion, it makes the book from which it was based even more enchanting. And another new CD-ROM rates at least an honorable mention.

The runner-up is David Macaulay’s “The Way Things Work,” the kind of book I used to read under the covers long after bedtime, using a flashlight so my parents wouldn’t know I was still awake. Macaulay, an artist whose books include the popular “Cathedral” and “Pyramid,” had a bestseller in 1988 with “The Way Things Work,” which brought his whimsical style to an examination of everyday scientific phenomena and inventions.

This book would seem a natural for the animation and video clips of CD-ROM, and it does sometimes take ample advantage of these features. In the section on color, for example, you can click on various colored lights to instantly see the result of combining different hues. And when it comes to showing how sound is transmitted by a microphone, the CD-ROM’s brief animation clip is far more illuminating than a static graphic.

Unfortunately, the majority of audiovisual materials on “The Way Things Work” are strictly for entertainment--characters do little slapstick routines, machines jiggle in a funny way and make weird sounds. These animations are not in the same league as Macaulay’s drawings, and worse, they have little to do with what this book is about.

This is not to say that CD-ROM “The Way Things Work” shouldn’t be entertaining. On the contrary, the off-beat animal characters in the sections on color and sound make those demonstrations all the more charming.

But the jokey bits that have little to do with showing us “The Way Things Work” are distractions. Kids around the world have not needed these kinds of amusements to share in the wonderment Macaulay finds in his subjects. The CD-ROM didn’t need them either.

From a graphic point of view, the work of cartoonist Larry Gonick is not nearly as stylish as that of Macaulay. But Gonick’s “Cartoon History” book series is laugh-out-loud funny while also managing to be educational, and the wonderful CD-ROM adaptation of his “The Cartoon History of the Universe” manages to enhance the irreverent humor and gentle satire of his work.

The CD-ROM starts off with a bang--the Big Bang that most leading astronomers and physicists believe came at the origin of the universe, about 13 billion years ago. Then it continues through the origin of the solar system, the Earth and the evolution of its species.

Each “page” of this CD-ROM is laid out in comic book form with the characters moving around the panels, reciting Gonick’s lines.

When we get to the section on asexual reproduction, we see a cell dividing itself in two; as the two cells part, one turns to the other to say, “It’s been nice being you.”

“The Cartoon History of the Universe” continues on through human history, ending with the conquests of Alexander the Great.

It includes so much animation, dialogue and music (of unusually high quality for a CD-ROM), that “The Cartoon History of the Universe” comes as a two-CD-ROM set.

Perhaps the best thing about these discs is that while enjoying them, you actually learn (or are reminded of) fascinating sequences in history.

The only serious shortcoming is that this history is essentially of the European world, mostly leaving out the fascinating civilizations under way at the same time in Africa, the Americas and Asia.

And one more small quibble: I have yet to figure out how to fit the whole computer setup under the covers for late-night viewing.

“The Way Things Work” from Dorling Kindersley Multimedia and “The Cartoon History of the Universe” from Putnam New Media are both available in Macintosh and Windows formats. The Macaulay discs retails for about $70, the Gonick for about $40.

* Cyburbia’s Internet address is Colker@news.latimes.com.