Review by New York Times Review
A crawling baby, an indulgent old dog and a kitchen floor: Fogliano ("And Then It's Spring") turns a small homey moment into a celebration of the merriment kids and pets tumble into - and the easy communication between them. Her artful language combines simple verse and baby talk in a way that will -please little ones ("baby hurry/baby wiggle/'puppy! puppy!'/baby giggle"). The Caldecott medalist Raschka's watercolors swing delightfully between bouncy motion and snuggly rest. HAND IN HAND Written and illustrated by Rosemary Wells. 26 pp. Holt. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 2 to 6) A big-eyed baby bunny tells her mother what she needs from her in verses so sweet and powerful they might just bring new parents to tears. "Be my teacher from day one," the bunny says: "My first feeder. My first reader." In the hands of Wells, the creator of Max and Ruby and many other beloved characters, the loving, moral message is blissfully free of treacle or preachiness. "Let me know my right from wrong," one page says simply, and boxes depict virtues like helping and forgiving. KING BABY Written and illustrated by Kate Beaton. 40 pp. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 8) Beaton ("The Princess and the Pony") brings a fresh, modern energy and spot-on pacing to the regal-baby theme, showing why comics artists like her have been redefining what picture books can do. King Baby looks like an egg with limbs, but his confidence knows no bounds. His fawning subjects - bearded Dad, Mom in leggings and flats - run themselves ragged trying to meet his demands. The fun rolls on, until King Baby, now a "big boy," magnanimously cedes his rule to, yes, Queen Baby. THE BOSSIER BABY Written and illustrated by Marla Frazee. 40 pp. Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 8) This follow-up to "The Boss Baby" - coming out as a film in the spring - will please new and old devotees. A pearl-wearing baby arrives at the little proto-corporate-tyrant's house, declaring herself the C.E.O. The staff is "strangely delighted." The demoted Boss Baby tries some protest moves (stripping, peeing outside), all futile, until the C.E.O. reaches out to bond with him. As always, Frazee makes it adorable, witty and clever, down to the details of the family's midcentury modern showplace home. RUDAS: Niño's Horrendous Hermanitas Written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales. 32 pp. Neal Porter/Roaring Brook. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Niño is back, and now the mighty masked lucha libre star from "Niño Wrestles the World" must share the stage with his rule-bending twin baby sisters. The girls conquer opponents like "El Extraterrestre" with "incredibly rude feats" involving diapers, biting and climbing all over them. Morales makes Spanish and English words flow together smoothly (as they grab toys one baby says "GIMME!," the other, "MÍO!"), and anything unfamiliar is easy to decipher thanks to her raucous, gorgeous art. ONLINE An expanded visual presentation of this week's column at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [November 13, 2016]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This is Wells's version of a parenting manual, expressed as a string of entreaties from a small bunny to its mother, beginning at birth. "Be my teacher from day one," Wells writes, as the baby bunny looks directly at readers with bright, beseeching eyes. "Be my sky, my moon, my sun." The bunny and its calm, attentive mother share milestones as it grows-moments of caring and cuddling, and newfound competencies such as riding a bike. "Kindness is our daily bread;/ gentle words, our feather bed," writes Wells, as the intimate mother-child focus broadens to highlight tender interactions with a third rabbit who could represent a friend or sibling. By story's end, the mother's job is done: her bunny is literally launched into the world, a confident sailor on life's waves. Wells includes visual nods to Van Gogh's Starry Night, the pointillists, and Rousseau's jungle scenes, but this book is really about one thing alone: the idea that being a parent is the most important, wonderful job in the world. Ages 2-6. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Short, rhyming sentences, accompanied by large framed watercolor illustrations featuring Wells's signature rabbits on each page, pay tribute to all the ways a parent nurtures and teaches a child from birth onward. The young child narrator, whose gender is ambiguous, makes requests ("Be my teacher/from day one. Be my sky, my moon,/my sun") and enumerates all the things a mother does ("My first feeder./My first reader"). The illustrations, which include only a mother, elaborate on each brief statement by depicting the activities in which child and parent are engaged. For example, the picture above "Midnight staymate" contains a vaporizer, box of tissues, and medicine bottle-obvious indicators that the little one lying in bed embraced by Mom is ill. Small framed scenes on two opposite pages show the child learning to be polite, to share, and to help. The text, while brief, is filled with lovely metaphors such as "Kindness is our daily bread; gentle words, our feather bed" that would be difficult for very young children to understand. VERDICT This offering is a suitable gift for an expectant parent who might then use the object-filled endpapers as a vocabulary game after the little one arrives.-Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Greenwich, CT © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This ode to parenthood follows a mother bunny and baby through important moments in the baby's life. The simple rhyming text, told from the child's perspective (e.g., "Make me steady. / Make me strong. / Let me know my right from wrong") is clearly intended to appeal to parents, though Wells's soft, warm illustrations successfully convey the rabbits' love for each other. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
