As a longtime researcher of the Wampas phenomenon - the yearly selection of worthy would-be starlets 1922-1934 - I was actually prepared to dislike this book by Roy Liebman. To my great surprise, I truly enjoyed it instead. Cramming a somewhat slim volume with facts of all the selected "babies" - from Joan Crawford to Maryon Aye - Liebman seems to have left no stone unturned. Naturally, you will not learn everything you want to know about, say, Clara Bow or Ginger Rogers, but The Wampas Baby Stars is a very handy first step. And you will not find fact and filmographies of Helen Cohan or Flora Bramley anywhere else. As an added threat, Mr. Liebman also discusses the wannabe Wampas selections of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. All highly entertaining and well illustrated.

At first glance perhaps a rather narrow concept, "From Silents to Sound" proves to be a valuable tool, not only for researchers of the transition period 1929-1930, but also for silent film historians at large. Liebman's well-researched work lists more than 500 silent actors and actresses who made 3 or more sound films. The author breaks his own rules a couple of times -- what on earth has William S. Hart, who never made one, to do in a book partially about sound films? -- but why quibble? Better to err on the side of inclusion. However, I wish Mr. Liebman would have re-printed the exact reviews from trade-papers instead of paraphrasing. But again, that is a minor complaint which should in no way deter anyone from purchasing this always interesting and illuminating book.