I AM A BABY

Rhyming text paired with cheery photos of racially diverse babies creates a warm invitation to reading for little ones and their caregivers.

The text is delivered in the first-person singular, but images of different babies from page to page avoid having a particular baby represent the eponymous “I.” For example, a black baby in pink is the first baby depicted in the book proper, and then the page turn reveals a fair-skinned toddler with long brown hair over text reading “this is my crib,” facing a page with an olive-skinned baby in gray and blue and text reading “this is my high chair, and this is my bib.” Ensuing pages show babies with various items and then family members. The introduction of a father with one baby, then a mother with another, followed by a baby with grandparents, risks excluding diverse family constellations, but several multiracial families are included, and there’s one later image that could be read as a baby with two moms (though the fact that this is the same baby as on the page with the singular text “this is my mother” makes this reading a little ambiguous). Throughout, most photos show babies looking directly at the camera, which enhances the engaging presentation for the youngest of readers.

Here’s a book to help babies one day say “I am a reader.” (Picture book. 6 mos.-3)