Where Did You Come from, Baby Dear?

May 15, 2018
Paired with new illustrations by Dyer, MacDonald's imaginative poem reads as a Q-and-A between a wondering family and their amazing new baby. Opening with a full-color spread of swaddled newborns of many races, the text begins with the titular query and continues, focusing on a different baby with each new question, always in full-color. Baby's responses recount magical moments on the path through the cosmos and appear with illustrations done in heavenly blue. "What makes your cheek like a warm wild rose? / I saw something better than anyone knows." Exhumed from the 19th century, the poem captures a theistic, if fanciful belief in a Creator. "Where did you get this pearly ear? / God spoke, and it came out to hear." For much of the book, inquiries appear on verso with replies on the recto, creating a perfect rhythm for page turns. When the pattern changes to include question and answer on the same page, readers will need a moment to adjust, especially since the lines appear in identical font. Dyer's chubby, cherubic, multicultural babies are almost always cheerful as they tumble, roll, and float across the page. The most satisfying page for new caregivers may be the one featuring vignettes of babies cuddled by family members.This book may have the most appeal as a gift book for spiritually minded new parents. (Picture book. 2-5)

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August 1, 2018

Baby-Toddler-Despite a title that suggests a "where do babies come from" offering, this resuscitated 19th-century poem handles the question with the whimsical subtlety of a Hallmark card crossed with an Anne Geddes calendar. Dyer's diverse cast of cherubic infants, drawn with soft pastel-colored pencil strokes accompanies MacDonald's awkwardly rhymed interrogative dialogue about the origin of babies and some of their body parts. In answer to the titular inquiry and the subsequent queries, the poet proffers hazy quasi-spiritual responses. "Why that three-cornered smile of bliss?/Three angels gave me at once a kiss./Where did you get this pearly ear?/God spoke, and it came out to hear." Warm-tone portraits of babies accompany the questions on the verso pages, while the infant's answers depicting their heavenly genesis appear in washed out celestial blues on the recto. VERDICT A book that would perhaps fare well in a highly sentimental personal collection, but is a strictly additional purchase for most library collections.-Yelena Voysey, formerly at Pickering Educational Library, Boston UniversityElementary

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 27, 2018
Based on a classic paean from British author George MacDonald, this picture book celebrates the wonder of welcoming a child. The poem takes a lyrical q&a format: “Where did you get those eyes so blue?/ Out of the sky as I came through.” Dyer infuses her art with dusky light as babies of different ethnic backgrounds appear engaged in earthly activities—playing with blocks, in a garden, cozy in bed—while the poem evokes a spiritual and celestial tone: “Why that three-cornered smile of bliss?/ Three angels gave me at once a kiss.” Dyer depicts the babies soaring through “starry twinkles,” cradled on pillowlike clouds, and surrounded by angels. An exultant ode to newborns. Ages 3–7.