You Are My Baby: Safari

March 18, 2013
Siminovich’s latest is two board books in one: a gentle, curved die-cut separates the lower left corner of the book from the rest of it, so that each section can be thumbed through separately. The larger portions of the pages feature adult animals, including a giraffe (“You reach high for a treat”) and a crocodile; their babies are pictured in the smaller “book,” and all the animals are portrayed in cozy textures of burlap and cloth. When the pages are opened in full, it’s almost as though the elder animals are encircling their little ones with hugs—a clever and reassuring effect. Simultaneously available: You Are My Baby: Farm. Up to age 4.

This split-level reading experience is a cozy delight. Readers match animal babies pictured on each page of a smaller book (approximately 3 inches square) attached and nestled in the left-hand corner of the full-size board book, which features the corresponding parent animals. The simple text provides clues as to whose baby monkey, elephant, crocodile or elephant is whose. "You reach high for a treat," reads the larger giraffe page. The smaller double-page spread featuring the giraffe calf answers, "You are my baby, little giraffe," as the little one reaches for leaves held in its parent's mouth. Siminovich, of the Petit Collage decorating line, uses her graphic, clean collage style to create appealingly simple parent-and-baby duos assembled with warmly colored and textured papers on delicately patterned backgrounds. You Are My Baby: Farm uses the same format to lovely effect with barnyard animals. Here, the vocabulary-building text includes the specific names for baby animals, such as piglet, calf, chick, lamb and foal. While grown-ups may want to practice manipulating the setup in advance, babies will enjoy the multiple opportunities to grab pages. In both form and content, these two board books beautifully represent baby and grown-up bonding, whether human or animal. (Board book. 6 mos.-2) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.