MAMA ROCKS, PAPA SINGS

In sunny, hot Haiti, a child is born. Then cousins and neighbors come to live with the child's family. Another misfortune, and another, deposits yet more children at the family's door. Life at home, though crowded, is festive. Then, lo, the babies all go home—and it is just three once more. The story was inspired by the Blackburns, missionaries to Haiti with two offspring of their own who adopted 28 children orphaned in a malaria epidemic. All 32 Blackburns live in Indiana, where a portion of the earnings from this book will be sent. Told in a playful singsong, with Creole words mixed into the text (and defined in a glossary that opens the work), Van Laan's tale is rollicking and witty, bright and sweet. Smith's oil pastels convey the same buoyant spirit as the story in tropical colors and vistas- -the white light of sun overhead, a rosy sky at dusk. Quietly insinuated amid all the caring and generosity—a counting lesson. Brava. (Picture book. 3-7)