WHEN YOU WERE JUST A HEARTBEAT

This simple, abstract pregnancy tracker pairs deftly brushed watercolors of small birds and other growing things to a brief text phrased so that it could be read by a sibling or either parent. The visuals subtly suggest each stage of growth, as seasons pass: a line of delicate-footed salamanders scamper across the page “while you were growing fingers and toes,” a gorgeous iris opens “about the time you were opening your eyes,” and “when you were too big to roll over, the pumpkins were fat and round.” Placed on broad expanses of white, each portrait will draw the eyes even of very young viewers, and when baby does at last put in an appearance, both the hands in which it is cradled and the accompanying sentiment—“We’ll always keep on loving you”—send a message of unalloyed comfort and reassurance. An unusual counterpart to the more concrete reportage in the likes of Kes Gray’s Baby On Board, illustrated by Sarah Nayler (p. 222). (Picture book. 4-8)