Amazon.com Review
Plenty of animal babies stagger about on bowed, spindly legs mere moments after birth, but plenty more are lovingly carried by their mothers for a long while. Linda Ashman’s
Babies on the Go, featuring Jane Dyer’s sweet, mama-and-baby watercolors, highlights 20 animals, among them a tiny swan nestled on her mother’s back, a lioness carefully carrying her cub by the scruff of his neck, and a septet of baby opossum clinging to their mama’s fur. (It's probably the most appealing opossum illustration anywhere.) Ashman (
Castles, Caves, and Honeycombs,
Rub-a-Dub Sub)and Dyer, acclaimed illustrator of Mem Fox’s
Time for Bed, have created a rhythmic poem and picture book that is certain to captivate a whole new crop of mothers carrying and wearing their babies everywhere: "It doesn’t matter how they go. / Inside…outside…fast…or slow. / On the ground or high above, / babies always ride with love." (Baby to preschool)
--Jennifer Lindsay
From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Toddlers know all about being carried, so they will immediately connect to this title that describes the different and unique ways animal mothers transport their young. In fact, text and illustrations at the beginning and end of the book include human babies, reinforcing this commonality. Unlike those creatures that "stand up right away," the majority of the animals portrayed here "need more time to grow" and must be carried on backs, latch onto tails, hang onto bellies, float along on a tail, or lie snug inside a mother's mouth. Each pair is portrayed on a full page, with a phrase underneath beginning with an apt verb, such as "nudged" or "tucked" or "boosted," that notes the attending movement. Action is also reinforced in many illustrations by an ear or a tail or a paw pushing out beyond the frame. A wide array of creatures inhabits the pages, from kangaroos to crocodiles to bats and opossums. A chart at the end identifies them all, under the heading, "Meet the Babies." The large, soft watercolor illustrations and rhyming text make this celebration of parent/child love a natural for toddler storytime, and it's also perfect for one-on-one sharing.
Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NYCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
