ROCK STARS DON'T NAP

ROCK-a-bye, baby!

Jimmy was born to rock and roll: His loud wails in the hospital nursery prove he’s a star as he out-shrieks the other newborns. As Jimmy grows, he wows crowds everywhere—the highchair, the bedroom (where he and Mama, his “biggest fan,” “rocked the nights away”)—the playground, the supermarket. When Mama announces that it’s naptime, the star decides that’s not in his contract and quickly rocks out of control—biting, scribbling on walls, and staging an epic tantrum—until, finally tuckered out, the rocker settles into his biggest fan’s arms and snoozes the night away. Much of the text employs snippets of classic rock lyrics, mostly from ’60s-’80s tunes. The author is self-referential, conveying his obvious musical passions and love of parenting. The book has an adult, tongue-in-cheek sensibility, appealing more to knowing parents of babies than to child readers; this will make a fun gift for baby showers and new parents. Many young parents, however, may not recognize references to some of the older classic rock tunes and will certainly benefit from the song list in the backmatter; it’s too bad a QR code isn’t included. The comic, cartoony digital illustrations are dynamic and depict the "superstar" infant and his parents as brown-skinned.

There’s only one perfect rock-star baby in the world—and every parent has one.