Beryl knows she will love, love, love her new baby sister, certain to be as sweet as a chocolate babka. But when her father calls her and her little brother Sam from the hospital and happily shouts “It’s a boy!” she faces her worst nightmare: “Two baby brothers. Double trouble.” This funny, heartwarming early chapter book about embracing (and rejecting) a new baby in the house has shades of Kevin Henkes’s Julius, the Baby of the World and a charm all its own. As Beryl concocts a strategy to make baby Zachary disappear, Uncle Morty conjures some tricks of his own to help his niece and nephew accept the small intruder as a member of the family, a long line of “gorgeous genius” babies. In the end, Beryl decides she doesn’t want to make baby Zach disappear after all. Chess’s soft, rounded, dePaola-style illustrations are as warm, comical, and appealing as the story. A detailed Eastern European recipe for chocolate babka tops off an already enticing offering for the sibling-challenged. (Illustrated fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2004
ISBN: 0-618-23489-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2004
“Dad’s new girlfriend is weird. Totally uncool,” declares the young female narrator. That fact will be difficult for children to believe, because Sweet Potato has dreadlocks, high tops, and tuba-playing in her favor and seems far more interesting than Dad. But the narrator has a right to her opinions, which gradually soften from complaints (“She doesn’t bake cookies”) to statements (“She sings opera to her goldfish”) to some very faint praise (“She never calls me stupid”). Drawn in bright pastels, Monroe’s heroine examines the new girlfriend’s funky boots and hair with the eyes of a minx; these intriguing illustrations carry readers along, even without more indications in the text—for children with their own parental dating problems—of how the narrator came to change her mind. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 2, 1999
ISBN: 1-57505-306-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In facile rhyme, a preschooler lists all the things she can do: “I can dress myself in my very own clothes. I can brush my teeth. I can blow my nose.” These boasts are addressed to her baby brother as her mother goes through the day caring for them both. The girl shown is wildly active, and her poses recall those of the haughty Eloise of Plaza Hotel fame as she upturns food and batter on the kitchen floor, frolics in the house, goes down a slide head-first, and splashes in the tub, disturbing her mother, who has the baby in her arms. The preschooler generously explains to the baby, “And when you get bigger, do you know what I’ll do? I’ll teach every one of these things to you.” The illustrations, executed with a fine, loose drawing style, portray a chaotic but normal, believable household with modern, identifiable objects and scenarios. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: March 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-694-01200-9
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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