In facile rhyme, a preschooler lists all the things she can do: “I can dress myself in my very own clothes. I can brush my teeth. I can blow my nose.” These boasts are addressed to her baby brother as her mother goes through the day caring for them both. The girl shown is wildly active, and her poses recall those of the haughty Eloise of Plaza Hotel fame as she upturns food and batter on the kitchen floor, frolics in the house, goes down a slide head-first, and splashes in the tub, disturbing her mother, who has the baby in her arms. The preschooler generously explains to the baby, “And when you get bigger, do you know what I’ll do? I’ll teach every one of these things to you.” The illustrations, executed with a fine, loose drawing style, portray a chaotic but normal, believable household with modern, identifiable objects and scenarios. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: March 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-694-01200-9
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
One of a four-book series designed to help the very young prepare for new siblings, this title presents a toddler-and-mother pair (the latter heavily pregnant) as they read about new babies, sort hand-me-downs, buy new toys, visit the obstetrician and the sonographer, speculate and wait. Throughout, the child asks questions and makes exclamations with complete enthusiasm: “How big is the baby? What does it eat? I felt it move! Is it a boy or girl?” Fuller’s jolly pictures present a biracial family that thoroughly enjoys every moment together. It’s a bit oversimplified, but no one can complain about the positive message it conveys, appropriately, to its baby and toddler audience. The other titles in the New Baby series are My New Baby (ISBN: 978-1-84643-276-7), Look at Me! (ISBN: 978-1-84643-278-1) and You and Me (ISBN: 978-1-84643-277-4). (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84643-275-0
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Child's Play
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
A common belief of childhood—that the moon is following a child—is part of the narrator’s ponderings during a night ride home. The narrator and her mother have helped a grandmother move; on the journey home the child rehearses her familiar bedtime routines in her mind: finding her father asleep on the couch in front of the TV, brushing her teeth, putting on pajamas, closing the curtains, and getting tucked in. The car is shown in snapshots, crossing bridges, rounding bends, and turning off exits, until its headlights shine a heart-shaped beam on the girl’s own house. Opposite those scenes are full-color pictures of the bedtime rituals, rendered in clean, unbroken pen-and-ink lines and washed in warm colors. The unswerving text, set in dark gray against a light gray background, conveys a sense of hush in simple declarative sentences and quietly celebrates the safety and comfort of home and family. (Picture book. 2-4)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16168-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
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