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NEW BABY! by Stephanie Blake

NEW BABY!

by Stephanie Blake ; illustrated by Stephanie Blake

Pub Date: April 1st, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4255-7
Publisher: NorthSouth

Young Simon is stunned to learn that his parents aren’t planning to send his new little brother back to the hospital.

Previously met tricking a friend in A Deal’s A Deal (2011) and turning a splinter into a sword in Super Bunny (2015), Simon indulges in further iffy behavior in this outing. The outrage that he feels at the prospect of having to share his home doesn’t survive a spell of nighttime thoughts that leave him terrified of a massive wolf attack. When his parents tell him to go back to bed, he plucks up his 3-day-old sibling on the way, announcing “I’m going to protect you, my teeny-weeny new baby.” The rationale is disingenuous but forgivable; less so, at least on this side of the Atlantic (the episode was originally published in France), is transplanting the infant from a secure basinet to an open bed sans parental permission or supervision. Big, rabbitlike ears aside, the white characters in Blake’s simply drawn and colored domestic scenes are human down even, in Simon’s mom’s case, to facial features.

It’s a well-worn theme, and takes with less risky coping strategies abound, from Kevin Henkes’ Julius, the Baby of the World (1991) on.

(Picture book. 5-7)