By Anne Hunter
Tundra Books, 2020
Toddlers are one of the most difficult audiences to reach when writing or reading books. Anne Hunter makes it look easy in the charming book, Where's Baby?
Papa Fox looks high and low for Baby, calling out in a large word bubble each time, "Ba-by!" He asks if Baby is up in the tree, inside the log, under the water, etc. Each time, someone is there, but it's not Baby. Skunk replies, "I am inside the log, but I am not your baby. Go away!"
Gentle illustrations in ballpoint pen and colored pencils make it easy to spot Baby hiding in each spread. Blues and grays dominate the color palette, but Baby's brown coloring will help even the youngest of listeners spot his hiding places. Readers will suspect that Papa knows all along where Baby is hiding, and they will be right. Baby can't wait to play again!
Elements of grammar (location prepositions), fun (seek and find), and comfort (love of family) are all in Where's Baby? When this pandemic has passed us by and I can visit with toddlers again, this will be the first book that I read.
Look inside Where's Baby?
My copy of Where's Baby? was provided by LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
