WHERE DID THAT BABY COME FROM?

Echoing the plaint of many an older sibling, a young versifier—cast as a member of an affectionate family of tiger-striped cats in often rumpled human dress—wonders, “Where did that baby come from? / And can we take it back?” The first query sparks an extended riff: Did the child fall from the sky? Sprout from a seed? Come from a kit? (“All it can do is pee and poo / Is there a missing bit?”) A zoo? A grocery store? Outer space? Depicting each alternative in cozily jumbled, hilarious close-ups, Gliori has the kitten floating amid wind-swept leaves, for instance, budding with irresistible cuteness on a vine, or sitting on a shelf next to a sign offering “free-range babies.” After smiles give way to tears and then, with a bit of cuddling, smiles again, harmony reigns: “I think our baby comes from the place I come from, too. / Our place of birth was planet Earth—this baby, me . . . and you.” Animated by themes of love and acceptance, this makes a perfect lead-in to Robie Harris’s more specific answer in Happy Birth Day (1996). (Picture book. 4-6)