PETE AND LEONIE

A pair of babies switch places for the day.

Lively Leonie, a human baby drawn to climbing “dirty, dangerous things,” and peaceable Pete, a coyote pup who enjoys a tidy bed and whose politeness sets him apart from his pack, wander into each other’s homes one morning. Pete’s mother mistakes the small energetic creature in a pointy-eared hoodie for her own child, and Leonie’s tired dad is too exhausted to realize that the baby who has crawled into the crib has fur. Though “there was something a little off about the way Pete smelled…and the way Leonie’s nose twitched,” the parents go with the flow. Poster’s figures are both delicate and comical. Leonie has a look of kinetic determination, Pete of mildness and calm; both have the soft, rounded look of the very young. The babies enjoy their new environments. “Pete liked the woods. They were dirty!” accompanies an image of Leonie romping with coyotes. “Leonie liked the cottage. It was pleasant,” the text observes dryly as Pete settles in—readers in on the switch will be amused. Eventually the parents exchange the babies for their own (but meet again for a picnic). Poster’s brushed velvety gray backgrounds, adept use of light and shadow, and muted palette—warm pinks and peaches with blue highlighted dialogue balloons—convey a sense of friendliness and safe exploration. Human characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A comfortably silly adventure for wild babies and tame ones, too.