A IS FOR ABIGAIL

The creators of the sumptuous, if superficial, America: A Patriotic Primer (2002) follow up with a better, look-alike tribute to the achievements of this country’s women, Abigail Adams to Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Though Anne Hutchinson takes a solo turn for “H,” most entries are multiples, from the four female medical workers surrounding Elizabeth Blackwell to a double-gatefold stage at “P,” filled with renowned Performers. Occasional captions or pithy quotes, supported by sketchy notes at the back, provide snippets of context for at least some of the women here—and Glasser gives them recognizable faces in her big, playful, intricately detailed compositions. But few were born after 1950, and some are never even named: several feminists are seen marching in “S is for the Sixties and Seventies and the Second Wave” (i.e., of feminism), for instance, but not identified. Still, as a consciousness-raiser, this offers a larger cast than Cheryl Harness’s Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women (2001). (Picture book/biography. 8-10)