This is developmentally appropriate nonfiction for the youngest animal lovers.
Two-word descriptions and realistic art depict the ways a variety of baby animals bathe.
“Snow bath” shows a young polar-bear cub enjoying a roll in the snow; across the spread, a sea-lion pup snoozes on a sandy beach in a “sun bath.” The book continues with a variety of bathing techniques, including “dust bath” (zebra foal), “mud bath” (hippopotamus calf), and “tongue bath” (tiger cub). Tildes’ sunny paintings fill each page, with a squiggly black line as an informal border. The final double-page spread reveals a white infant with brown hair and brown eyes in a baby bathtub receiving a “bubble bath!” The companion book, Baby Animals Take a Nap, follows the same formula to demonstrate how baby critters rest, often with a grown-up in close proximity. The title ends with a white baby peacefully snoozing in the crook of a grown-up’s arm, likely the babe’s father. Both offerings list the animals depicted in order of appearance in the book on the back cover. While the imagery in both may skew to the adorable, the information it presents is solid.
This is developmentally appropriate nonfiction for the youngest animal lovers. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-58089-538-5
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring in alphabetical order.
Each page displays an enormous capital letter, one line of verse with the keyword capitalized, and a loving nonhuman parent gazing adoringly at their baby. “A is for Always. I always love you more. / B is for Butterfly kisses. It’s you that I adore.” While not named or labelled as such, the A is also for an alligator and its hatchling and B is for a butterfly and a butterfly child (not a caterpillar—biology is not the aim of this title) interacting in some way with the said letter. For E there are an elephant and a calf; U features a unicorn and foal; and X, keyed to the last letter of the animal’s name, corresponds to a fox and three pups. The final double-page spread shows all the featured creatures and their babies as the last line declares: “Baby, I love you from A to Z!” The verse is standard fare and appropriately sentimental. The art is cartoony-cute and populated by suitably loving critters on solid backgrounds. Hearts accent each scene, but the theme of the project is never in any doubt.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2095-6
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead.
An Easter-themed board-book parody of the traditional nursery rhyme.
Unfortunately, this effort is just as sugary and uninspired as The Itsy Bitsy Snowman, offered by the same pair in 2015. A cheerful white bunny hops through a pastel world to distribute candy and treats for Easter but spills his baskets. A hedgehog, fox, mouse, and various birds come to the bunny’s rescue, retrieving the candy, helping to devise a distribution plan, and hiding the eggs. Then magically, they all fly off in a hot air balloon as the little animals in the village emerge to find the treats. Without any apparent purpose, the type changes color to highlight some words. For very young children every word is new, so highlighting “tiny tail” or “friends” makes no sense. Although the text is meant to be sung, the words don't quite fit the rhythm of the original song. Moreover, there are not clear motions to accompany the text; without the fingerplay movements, this book has none of the satisfying verve of the traditional version.
Leave the hopping to Peter Cottontail and sing the original song instead. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5621-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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