WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING JOEYS

Directed at marsupial parents of all kinds, from kangaroos and koalas to possums and bandicoots, this tongue-in-cheek guide to joey development takes it step by step, from the birth of your pinkie to where your baby goes after it leaves the pouch. 

Never once dropping the pretense that this is written for pouched mammals, this manages to be both entertaining and informative, defining marsupial and covering gestation periods, size and number of young, the pinkie's trip from cloaca to pouch or pouch substitute, feeding and further development. Heos’ question-and-answer text also weaves in information about where animals live and what they eat, but informally—just enough to whet curiosity and to send readers to the solid suggestions for further reading and websites. She uses appropriate vocabulary, making meanings clear in context and also providing a glossary. Jorisch’s painted pen-and-ink sketches show lively, lightly anthropomorphized animals and add considerably to the humor. How can readers resist the wombat checking out her pouch or the honey-possum love fest? Both parents and offspring have personality. 

This companion to What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae (2011) is enormously appealing, an offbeat approach to learning about the natural world that targets exactly the stage young readers most want to know about.