AS BIG AS YOU

From its fresh green endpapers to the grace notes of acorn and berry, flower and vegetable, a loving adult voice follows a baby through the seasons. “When you were born, you were as big as a cabbage . . . as quiet as a mouse,” it opens, and then you grew “large as a pumpkin” and “bouncy as a bunny.” Readers see the babe in the spring, with a mouth “dainty as a strawberry” and in the summer “high as the tomato plant.” In the fall, when the child’s hand is “wide as an oak leaf,” her mother makes an appearance at last, swinging the child in her arms and assuring that “someday soon, you’ll be as big as me!” The text usually faces a full-page image, done in decorative rhythms and shapes. A double-paged spread supports each animal image. The curl of the baby’s hair echoes the cabbage leaves; the line of its bare foot traces the beet leaf in miniature; and its hand indeed is just as wide as an oak leaf. The colors are clear and soft and the whole is a very satisfying read-aloud. The book jacket can be removed and on the inside there’s a growth chart for wee ones. (Picture book. 2-6)