MAMAS AND BABIES

A look at mama animals and how they care for their babies.

Toddlers and young children are fascinated with babies, whether they’re human or animal, and this book takes advantage of that fact. Spread by spread, children are introduced to a mother and her baby or babies and something the mom does to take care of her child. Mama swan teaches her cygnets how to swim and offers her back as a resting place. Mama wolf spider carries her hundreds of hatchlings on her back. Mama elephant bathes her calf using her trunk. Though heavy on mammals, this book does show a couple of birds (in addition to the swan, a mother penguin also appears), a reptile (alligator), and, still within the mammal category, a whale and a marsupial (kangaroo). Largely white backgrounds with the simplest of habitat details keep the focus on the mother-child pair and their interaction. The animals are not anthropomorphized; instead they are depicted with realistic faces free of sentimentality, though their natural inclinations (nuzzling, licking, bathing, and watching over their little ones) may seem quite human to child readers, especially the orangutans holding hands as they sleep.

A sweet intro to many animal species and a winner for baby-obsessed youngsters.