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REACH by Elizabeth Verdick

REACH

From the Happy Healthy Baby series

by Elizabeth Verdick ; Marjorie Lisovskis

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-57542-424-8
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing

Expressive black-and-white photography features babies reaching and interacting with their world.

Each right-hand page offers gentle images of racially diverse infants reaching for a toy, a mirror, a bottle or a grown-up. The left-hand page provides one sentence of the light verse: “Wiggly baby on the floor. / What is baby reaching for? / Loving baby, sweet as can be. / Are you reaching out to me?” Floating near the text are line-drawn cartoons in pastel colors depicting babies engaged in play among doodles of stars, hearts, flowers and toys. Between the pale colors and the diminutive figures, these details may be lost on little ones, but babies will be drawn to the photos. This title parallels closely the companion book, Eat (978-1-57542-425-5), which shows infants eating, drinking from a bottle and nursing (there is a very demure breast-feeding photo and a cartoon drawing of the same on one spread). Color photography would have provided more visual appeal in a book on eating, but, again, the photos are bright-eyed and buoyant. The last two pages of both books provide easily digestible tips for parents and caregivers on healthy eating and ways to encourage reaching, grabbing and interaction.

This and its companion are pleasant additions to the Happy Healthy Baby series.

(Board book. 6-18 mos.)