THE BABY HUSTLE

Wan cartoons of a broadly smiling baby accompany undistinguished verse in a book that hopes gimmickry will counteract déjà vu. “Shake, shake, shake, / let’s do the baby hustle. / It’s not easy getting this show on the road!” Opposite, the baby holds a set of toy keys; these are a separate piece of die-cut cardboard set on a pivot within a die-cut window that allows readers to “shake” the keys. Similar die cuts feature the baby’s legs and the whole tot. The fun of hands-on manipulation is compromised by the extreme thickness of the die-cut pages; frustrated readers may well spend time and energy trying to unstick pages that aren’t really stuck, a problem compounded by the fact that the pages with no die cuts are of normal thickness. Give this one a pass. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)