SNUGGLE THE BABY

This interactive offering invites little ones to practice taking care of babies, playing with them, feeding them and putting them to bed.

The left-hand pages describe what babies want and need, while the right-hand pages provide opportunities to experiment with caring for babies. The book begins, “Babies love to play! Sometimes babies like peekaboo. Other times babies like to make noise. I like to TICKLE my baby’s belly.” The right-hand page reads simply, “LIKE THIS!” and features a large illustration of a baby with a thin flap that lifts to reveal her belly for tickling. While the opportunities for interaction will engage children, they involve some rather flimsy movable parts and easily lost pieces that are designed to be removed entirely and placed back in their slots, including a bottle for feeding baby and a cutout of baby to tuck in her bed. To boot, the page that asks kids to close baby’s diaper and snap her onesie invites frustration, as it features tabs that won’t stay shut. The illustrations—heavy on blue, pink and yellow and featuring wide-eyed, red-cheeked infants—lend this title the feel of a vintage book of paper dolls, albeit ethnically diverse ones.

An intriguing concept, but toddlers and preschoolers will need to be closely supervised if it’s to last beyond a single reading.