GUESS THE BABY

A wry tale that captures a youngster’s awe of babies and the comical disbelief that all adults emerged from infancy. A Show and Tell featuring a classmate’s baby brother is the impetus for a discussion on babies. French includes typical children’s perspectives on babies—odoriferous diapers, frequent crying—as well as some perspicacious reflections on baby-care, including a class discussion on the daily needs of infants: feeding, changing, affection, etc. French segues into a classroom guessing game in which all the students bring in their baby pictures for everyone to identify. The discovery of their teacher’s baby picture leads to a droll discussion of Mr. Judd’s babyhood, with the children imagining their beloved instructor in a pre-adult role. Rawlins’s colored pencil and acrylic gouache paintings are a medley of brilliant hues and genial faces. Her playful classroom scene is idyllically rendered while the flashbacks of Mr. Judd’s infancy are facetiously portrayed; one picture depicts a pint-sized version of the teacher in a pram, complete with dark mustache. The colorful collage of baby photographs encourages readers to join in on the fun, poring over the illustrations in an attempt to match baby to school child. A light-hearted tale with high kid appeal. (Picture book. 4-6)