MY LIFE BEGINS!

New babies mean a big change for an older brother.

Jacob is 9 years old when he and his parents welcome some new additions to their family—triplets! Jacob calls them the “Trips,” although they of course each have their own name, and Mom dresses each in a different color to make it easier to tell them apart. Jacob wishes the family could have gotten a puppy instead. But one night, when his parents are too exhausted to wake up, one of the babies starts crying, and Jacob tends to her. It’s Liz, the “most friendly” Trip. In the moonlight, she even smiles just for him—though he knows it might just be a reflex. So when Jacob’s class is tasked with finding a topic for a research project, he chooses the Trips. As time passes, and the family hires an extra set of hands to help with the little ones, the Trips show more of their individual personalities. MacLachlan’s calm, measured writing focuses on moments of everyday magic and charm, and Jacob’s observational notes read almost like poetry. This family is loving and oh-so pleasant, often becoming emotional at the simple but significant beauty of the babies’ growth milestones. Mimi, the hired nanny, is French, but there are no textual indicators of race; the occasional illustrations show most characters as light-skinned.

Precious.