RUNAWAY BABY BROTHER

Chick isn’t thrilled that his new baby brother is always around…until he is.

When his baby brother hatches, Chick is unimpressed. The baby can’t play any of his favorite games, and he always seems to follow him around. “He loves you and just wants to be with his big brother,” explains Mama Hen. Scowling Chick is unmoved by this statement, not to mention by his sibling’s cuteness. This is heightened immeasurably by Hudson’s illustration of the diaperlike bottom half of the eggshell from which Baby Brother has partially hatched; he wears it, orange legs protruding, throughout the story. When Chick runs off into the woods for a tree-climbing adventure, Baby Brother toddles forth in dogged pursuit. Chick ignores him and his struggles to keep up, eventually forgetting he’s even there. But when darkness falls, a somewhat scary beginning to his walk home ends up making him grateful for Baby Brother’s sudden reappearance. Throughout, vibrant colors dominate the barnyard and countryside scenes, lending a ready-for-animation feel to the story.

Make room in the nest for this new new-baby book.