All of those babies

PreS-K--Larsen's (How to Put Your Parents to Bed, etc.) refrain, "For babies are babies, but everyone knows/ that everyone, everyone, everyone GROWS," is the main theme, but along the way, readers learn that, "Wombats have joeys./ Lambs come from sheep. /Puffins have pufflings, and sandpipers, peeps." Joyful, rollicking rhymes without a single instance of awkward phrasing make this a glorious read-aloud, and there's plenty for the adult reader too: Echidnas have puggles! Hawks have eyas! Laberis's animation-style illustrations are expressive and full of whimsy and movement with animals laughing, frollicking, wobbling, and growing, of course. They are realistic enough to show what each baby animal looks like and give an especially informative view showing animals at many different developmental stages on the refrain pages. Perhaps inevitably, the book ends with human babies who are shown in a variety of skin tones and hair colors, with one particularly charming illustration of a family of three, with brown skin and black hair, and a just-as-winsome horse family. VERDICT Recommended for curious preschoolers and even early elementary children, for any collection that answers questions about what makes up families.--Hillary Perelyubskiy

Meet some cute offspring--and many humans' favorite little animal: ourselves. This delightful book nails rhymes and rhythms and features relatable content. Confidently employing a familiar two-beat-per-line quatrain, Larsen cleverly incorporates the proper terms for the young of a wide variety of animals. Porcupettes, peeps, puggles, codlings, crias, eyas, keets, poult, and pinkies will be new to many readers, while other words, such as goslings, tadpoles, calves, and kits may be more familiar. The colorful, cartoon-style illustrations are sharp, and the layout is packed but clear and unfussy. The size of the images and typeface is likely too small for group use but perfect for a lap--and there's plenty to pore over. From the first page, where the wombat's joeys are scaling a fluffy ewe while two lambs cavort on the wombat's back, to a scene where a puffin parent looks concerned as a pair of pufflings fight over a tasty fish, to an image of a cygnet catching a lift on a colt's back, there's a lot to see. The refrain "everyone grows" is accompanied by developmental sequences showing creatures such as penguins, octopuses, and meerkats maturing. Toward the end, the focus shifts: "You once were a baby." Additional animals look on, bemused, as "you" learn to roll, crawl, and walk. Humans depicted are tan- or brown-skinned. Many more unidentified animals (such as the uncommon axolotl), some with unlabeled young, are portrayed; reader research advised. Bound to be a repeat-reading request. (Informational picture book. 1-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.