Uneven but may win out readers just the same.
Lively, bouncy rhymes celebrate all the faces babies make.
Babies display a variety of expressions as they interact with grown-ups, pets, and other children. A baby with pale skin and blond hair smiles exuberantly, while a child with brown skin and soft, puffy dark-brown hair looks out from behind a curtain. But “even when you pout and frown, / you’ve got the cutest face in town,” reassures the unseen narrator. Love shines through, too, as the babies gaze into their grown-ups’ eyes. Ford’s illustrations of babies—brought to life with a vivid palette—convey a range of emotions through hyperbolic expressions, punctuated by cartoonish, sidewise mouths that at times seem artificial. The babies’ races are cued through skin tone, eye color, and hair color and texture; the Asian-presenting child is primarily distinguished through a shift in artistic style from exaggeratedly round, wide-open eyes for the others to smaller ones, an artistic choice that’s reinforced by the fact that the Asian-presenting child is exclusively shown looking downward or sleeping, further making the baby’s eyes seem smaller than those of the others. Wilson’s ebullient text celebrates the narrator’s love for the babies’ many faces throughout the day, amid a jaunty octosyllabic meter that skips a beat here and there (“Dream, my dear, of your happy place”).
Uneven but may win out readers just the same. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781338722741
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
A good choice for caregivers looking for a positive, uncomplicated introduction to a new baby that focuses on everything an...
A little boy exults in his new role as big brother.
Rhyming text describes the arrival of a new baby and all of the big brother’s rewarding new duties. He gets to help with feedings, diaper changes, playtime, bathtime, and naptime. Though the rhyming couplets can sometimes feel a bit forced and awkward, the sentiment is sweet, as the focus here never veers from the excitement and love a little boy feels for his tiny new sibling. The charming, uncluttered illustrations convincingly depict the growing bond between this fair-skinned, rosy-cheeked, smiling pair of boys. In the final pages, the parents, heretofore kept mostly out of view, are pictured holding the children. The accompanying text reads: “Mommy, Daddy, baby, me. / We love each other—a family!” In companion volume I Am a Big Sister, the little boy is replaced with a little girl with bows in her hair. Some of the colors and patterns in the illustrations are slightly altered, but it is essentially the same title.
A good choice for caregivers looking for a positive, uncomplicated introduction to a new baby that focuses on everything an older sibling can do to help. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-68886-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A funny, wrenching affirmation of a parent’s unconditional love.
A toddler’s recalcitrance inspires a parent’s book-length retort.
The smallest thing—having to put on shoes, say—can set off a youngster. In this outing, an adult responds to a toddler’s footwear-related tantrum with one long, single-sentence spiel that is the book’s only text. It begins, “Even when… // because of a shoe… / you are screaming / and you don’t want to be screaming / but you just can’t stop screaming…” Across pages, the caregiver describes the child’s obstinacy, forecasting, among other things, a lifetime spent hating shoes (“You want all the shoes / to go to the bottom of the ocean / and get eaten by a shark”). The point, of course, is that even when the kid is screeching and the adult is “making my maddest face / and my eyes are my maddest eyes,” parent and child still love each other. Fogliano’s text, which could almost pass for a narrative poem, is hilarious, cathartic, and, finally, heartwarming—at least it will be for parents. The parent’s full-throttle narration may confound some little ones, who will pick up cues from Frazee’s emotionally attuned multimedia art, which is in color to start, largely grayscale when the parent is most gloom-and-doomiest, and in color again (whew!) when the two have made their peace. Both characters are pale-skinned redheads.
A funny, wrenching affirmation of a parent’s unconditional love. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780593707401
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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