AM I BEAUTIFUL?

While Mother Hippo wallows, Young Hippo takes a walk. Overhearing other animals admiring their young, he politely asks, "Am I beautiful, too?" Laudably tactful, each evades the question—"That's not for me to say," opines Mother Lion, while Father Heron allows that he can't tell: "You have no feathers. Best...ask someone at home." After a lady cuddling her baby just laughs at him, Young Hippo hurries back to Mother Hippo to be reassured that he's "the most beautiful of all, because you are mine!" Though the lessons are obvious, they're gently made in this well-honed, repetitive tale. Abolafia's cheerfully ingenuous characters, deftly drawn in a cartoony style and colored, more subtly, in watercolor, make a perfect accompaniment. An engaging variant on a familiar theme; just right for sharing. (Picture book. 2-6)