From Publishers Weekly
Reprising the family first introduced in Happy Birth Day!, Harris and Emberley return with another sensitive and visually sumptuous portrayal of a domestic milestone: the arrival of a second child. This time it's the father who narrates, as he tells the book's heroine, an unnamed preschooler, about how she reacted to her rumpled-faced brother's arrival. Initially, the big sister thinks he is "too noisy" and "boring." But then she realizes that by comparison, she is downright mature ("That baby doesn't have any teeth! I have so-ooo many teeth. And I can brush all my teeth. That baby can't!"). Working in full-bleed spreads in glowing peach tones, Emberley creates warm, intimate pictures (the audience is often just beyond the characters' noses); by frequently framing the action at the girl's eye level, he captures the full force of her stormy emotions. By the final page, the girl is sufficiently won over, enough to say "Hi new baby," rock her brother and even savor the deliciousness of new-baby smell. A sympathetic, credible approach to a reluctant sibling's plight. Ages 2-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Ages 4-8. The glorious team responsible for
It's So Amazing! (1999) and
Happy Birth Day! (1996) has created a tender, real story of a little girl's first meeting with her new baby brother. Dad tells what happened, relating it as if he were recounting a favorite family story. He gently reminds his daughter that she didn't like the baby's cries or when he peed and spat up and that she tried to take his little cap and be the baby again. Through it all, parents and grandparents are seen as calm and reassuring. They tell her that she is a big sister, and big sisters are big enough to hold the baby. When she finally does, he falls asleep. Emberley's realistic oil-pastel pictures are utterly wonderful. A slightly balding dad, a round-faced mom, the little girl, the baby, and the grandparents are seen mostly in tight close-ups, a genuine kid's eye view: Mom nurses while she munches a pickle; the grandparents change the drooling infant. The emotions on the faces, from bemusement to fear to anger to delight, are rendered with pitch-perfect precision. Pair this with Kevin Henkes'
Julius, the Baby of the World (1990) for a siblingfest of reassurance and joy.
GraceAnne DeCandidoCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
