DID MY MOTHER DO THAT?

When Holly’s Mommy goes out, Daddy tells her “a story about when [she was] a new baby.” The story becomes a gentle father-daughter conversation, in which Holly poses a series of what-ifs: “What if I were a baby kangaroo?” Her father answers each hypothetical with scientifically sound information; if Holly had been a baby shark, for instance, her mother might have eaten her—but “[y]our mother would never do that.” Lovelock’s full-bleed watercolor, ink and pencil illustrations deftly superimpose the habitat of whatever animal is under discussion over Holly and Daddy cuddling in her bedroom, cleverly allowing for visual comparisons. Kangaroos jump over the pair; seahorses swim by them. The images of parent-child affection are unforced and genuinely sweet—a breath of fresh air in this saccharine season. (Picture book. 3-5)