BABY BABKA, THE GORGEOUS GENIUS

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)