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Mama Bird faces quite a challenge feeding her voracious new brood. Early one morning, the speckled eggs crack, and a moment later seven adorable yellow baby birds are crying for nourishment. Mama flies frenziedly all over town to find, in turn, a cricket, a cherry, a crust of bread, a pea pod, a minnow, a bird seed and, finally, an earthworm. With full stomachs, the seven babies drift off to sleep, and exhausted Mama sees her opportunity for a nap as well. But just as her eyelids are falling comes a chorus of “Peeps!” Fleming’s minimal text is perfectly pitched to a very young audience; words dance all around the pages, and many (like the refrain of “flappa-flap, swoop-swoop”) are tailor-made for joyous repeating aloud. Yelchin’s gouache illustrations are similarly playful, depicting as they do a nest full of contented and/or screaming chicks, wee beaks agape, in nice count-up/count-down juxtaposition and an increasingly frazzled Mama. This one peeps loud: “Read it again!” (Picture book. 2-5)
