Baby Bistro! SIP CHEW YUM (Busy and Bright Baby) by Scarlett Wing

The verdict is in! Little fingers love Lift-the-Flap Books!

In Scarlett Wing's brand-new Sip, Chew, Yum: Lift-a-Flap Board Book (Busy & Bright Baby) (Cottage Door Press, 2018), baby goes through the day with emphasis on those eating occasions.

HAPPY AND HUNGRY!

On the very first page little ones get to lift a flap that shows Baby in his or her high chair with a bright "Good morning!"

Following flaps hide illustrations where Baby meets familiar foods--cut strawberries, blueberries, and orange slices for breakfast, with a hidden picture of Baby holding an orange. In turn Baby gets to discover Healthy Veggies (peas and carrots), things to Sip and Slurp (a sippy cup and bowl of alphabet soup, a bowl of spaghetti to slurp, and finally a broccoli floret, a tiny piece of cheese, and a YUM-some cookie to nibble under the final flap.

Bright primary colors add to the attraction of Amy Bray's simple illustrations, the minimal text introduces little eaters to the names of popular foods, and the savvy designers make sure that the flaps open in each direction, lifting up, pulling down, and opening from both left and right side of the flaps, subtly augmenting tactile skills of tots. A treat when Baby eats!

Mother and Child: The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin

WHEN YOU WERE TOO SMALL TO TELL ME HELLO,

I KNEW YOU WERE SOMEONE I WANTED TO KNOW.

The first time alone with a new baby is the time a parent realizes the enormity of what it means. There a whole new person there, with unknown possibilities, a future yet unforeseeable, with so many possibilities, a personality that they must begin to know. They look at each other and both see someone important. And as the child grows, the parents go along also, showing the child the world.  And they know...

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THERE HAS EVER BEEN A YOU.

There is much to wish for the new child–-kindness, cleverness, the strength to stand up for the good, the capacity to love and to enjoy life. In Emily Winfield Martin’s (Random House), this little book is the way to greet the new one with hopes and wishes and warnings for what lies ahead, set out in a bright four-page gatefold spread of the many things children do as they grow. And the parent cannot help thinking about all the millions of steps and sights and joys the child will take and see and feel in the time together that lies ahead. This little best-seller is a wonderful alternative to a card and/or baby gift to the new mother and child.

Chow Down! Yum, Yum Baby! First Words for Little Foodies by Rosalee Wren

Yellow~ Peel~ Sweet~Soft~ Banana!

Bread~ Warm~ Wheat~ Butter~ Toast!

Yum, Yum, Breakfast!

Eating is important, and it has its own words, and for those first learning the vocabulary of foods, there is Rosalee Wren's little board book, Yum Yum Baby: First Words for Little Foodies (Padded Picture Book) (Cottage Door Press, 2018). Wren divides her books into words for meals and words about what we eat. Lunch comes with with a sandwich cut in little triangles and an apple, crisp and crunchy, tart and sweet.

Outdoors there is a garden with tasty words for the fruits and veggies found there--green, leafy broccoli to be cut, red, ripe, and sweet strawberries to be picked and orange and crunchy carrots to be pulled.

And when dinner is done, there's even something frozen and creamy that's fun to lick--ice cream!

Artist Kat Uno personifies each food to go along with author Wren's glossary of goodies, giving young foodies a way to use their words about foods, with the purpose of developing good eating habits, and vocabulary to go with them.

Signing Up! ABC for Me: Baby Signs by Christine Engel

Follow us through the alphabet and learn to use twenty-six essential phrases in baby sign language--a fun way to communicate with baby long before they can talk.

It's an engaging premise and promise that infants can learn to understand and, as coordination develops, to communicate in sign language before they are able to form the words with which they will speak. Christine Engel's ABC for Me: ABC Baby Signs: Learn baby sign language while you practice your ABCs! (Walter Foster/Quarto, 2017) offers parents a chance to give teaching babies sign language a try.

Experienced parents know that infants gesture before they can speak, and most parents quickly learn to recognize those little arms reaching up in the "pick-me-up" position or the "I want THAT!" gesture. Experiments have shown that babies can recognize hand signs and begin to make them before they can produce speech. Engel's little board book offers illustrations of basic signs--ALL DONE, EAT, GO!, HELP, MORE, NO, PLEASE, UP, PLEASE, READ, and even I LOVE YOU!--with verbal directions and conventional diagrams as well as illustrations of endearing infants to ensure consistency with each sign. The author also arranges the twenty-six signs in alphabetical order, with explanations in rhythm and rhyme to reinforce language development.  And who wouldn't want to have a baby who knows how to follow the familiar Shhhh! gesture for QUIET sometimes?

WANT A BITE TO EAT?

MOVE YOUR HAND TO YOUR MOUTH,
AND YOU'LL GET A TREAT!

Engel's illustrations are charming, and, since they mimic common adult gestures, are easy to remember. The signs included cover most of the necessary communications, even one for "time for a diaper change!" She suggests, but does not emphasize, that such signs should be used along with spoken language, not as a substitute for speech. It's a fun book to read aloud and to begin communication with your baby.

Other books in the series by Christine Foster are ABC for Me: ABC Love: An endearing twist on learning your ABCs!, and ABC for Me: ABC Yoga:. Join us and the animals out in nature and learn some yoga!

Baby Bonanza: Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers and Marla Frazee

Every day, everywhere, babies are dressed--

In diapers and T-shirts, in buntings and sleepers,

In playsuits and dresses, in sweaters and creepers.

All dressed up in a brand-new second-born and super-sized board book format, Susan Myers'(Houghton Mifflin, 2011, 2004) is back, its bright-white board pages filled with adorable babies of all kinds, small and tall, playing with their toes or riding in carriers on their dads' backs or fronts, splashing in wading pools and snoozing on top of that enormous teddy bear Uncle Norville sent. There's even a "Baby on Board" window cling included so that everyone will recognize baby's limo.

Caldecott Award winner Marla Frazee's pencil and watercolored illustrations light up Meyers' easy verses with all kinds of babies, all sorts of families, and all types of playmates and admirers as they go through their day. Babies with bunnies, babies at the beach, babies at the mall and on the street, and babies who practice, practice, practice at getting bigger fill each double-page spread.

Every day, everywhere, babies are loved--

For trying so hard, for traveling so far,
for being so wonderful, ...just as they are.

Everywhere Babies will make a great gift for a mother-to-be, a father-to-be, grandparent-to-be, or even a young sibling-to-be. A charming book with much going on on each page to keep youngsters' attention and show the delightful side of a baby in the family.

Everyone Gets into the Act! Baby Face: A Book of Love for Baby by Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode

Mothers deserve all the credit they get any time of year, but when babies arrive, fathers and everyone else in the family get in on the act, and Newbery author Cynthia Rylant puts them all to work in her new book of rhymes for baby, Baby Face: A Book of Love for Baby

A tiny nose,
A tiny mouth,
A tiny pair of ears.
Two big eyes,
A bit of hair,
A little bit of tears.

Smile for me, sweet baby face,
Make the whole world shine.
Let me see your baby face,
Tell me you are mine.

After mom coaxes a smile from baby, it's time for the rest of the family to take over. Dad eases the little one into his first pair of real shoes, and tells what happens next in "Baby Steps."

A nice white shoe,
All tied up tight.
Another shoe
Is tied just right.

Time to try it,
Time to see,
If baby wants
To walk with me.

I'll hold your hands,
I'll hold on tight.
Take a step
And then take two.
Look and see
What you can do!

Grandmom takes over to do the honors in "Baby Shampoo," and Big Brother describes what happens when "Baby Teeth" start to appear.

After a big day, it's time for baby (and family) to rest, and Mom takes over again for "Baby Bed."

Sleepy eyes
And sleepy head,
Baby needs
A baby bed.

First some milk
and then some rocking.
I'll sing
Instead of talking. . . .

Sleep my sweetheart,
Sleep my dear.
Sleep and sleep.
I'll be right here.

Diane Goode's soft watercolors tell the story along with the award-winner Rylant's rhyming verse as six different babies do it all in this joyful memoir of baby days by two real picture book pros.

Two Especially (But Not Exclusively) for Mothers : You Were Loved Before You Were Born and MA! There's Nothing to Do Here!

Two mega-stars of the elementary firmament, Eve Bunting and Barbara Park, have tackled a difficult topic, one which straddles the boundary between books for the young and books for their parents as well. Waiting for baby is a big deal, whether you are the expectant parents or the expectant grandparents, or even the expectant siblings, and Eve and Barbara have two brand-new, very different but equally appealing takes on this life-changing event.

Caldecott author Eve Bunting's You Were Loved Before You Were Born shows the parents-in-waiting busy making ready for the soon-to-be-born child. Written as a time capsule love letter from the mother and father to their future child, the text details how they prepare a place in their home and in their hearts for their little newcomer. The to-be grandmother plants "a rosebush in the garden that will grow as you grow;" the grandpa brings over a rocking chair. "I sat in it to rock your sisters and then you," Grandma explains to the mother-to-be.

Everyone helps paint and decorate the nursery room, and the aunt-to-be adds a moon and stars to the ceiling. Cousins help sort and put away the lovingly-kept hand-me-downs from earlier babies, nephews bring old toys, and the neighbor makes a butterfly kite. "It'll be a while before baby will be big enough to fly a kite," the mother says. "I can wait," the neighbor replies. "We told the dog you would be here soon," the parents say, "and then--YOU came."

"You were loved by so many people before you were born ... and you still are."

In contrast, best-selling humorist Barbara Park (of Junie B. Jones fame) views the family situation from the viewpoint of the babe in utero. Ma! There's Nothing to Do Here! A Word from your Baby-in-Waiting (Picture Book) is a witty but poignant plea from the little one inside, as he looks forward to the joys of being in the big, wide world.

I'm all in a heap here.
My feet are asleep here.
I'm flat out of space;
I've got knees in my face.
I'm totally bored
with this dumb bungee cord.
I'm not kidding you--
There's NOTHING to do!

If I just had a truck
or a small yellow duck,
or a cat or a bug
or a teddy bear named DOUG!

The baby warns his parents that even when he's finally out there, there may be some, er, issues:

Plus, my head's kinda wobbly
I'll need support, prob'ly,
And nights might get bumpy.
I'll wake full of grumpy.

So, Ma, here's the plan--
Let's rest while we can.
I'll stay in here longer,
Get bigger and stronger.
Then, ready--set--YAY!
I'll come out to play.

Inspired by the ultrasound portrait of her own first grandchild and written as a shower gift for the second grandchild, Park's jaunty rhyming text teams with illustrations by Viviana Garofoli to create the perfect book for the expectant mom and dad. Siblings-in-waiting will also enjoy Park's humorous take on life from a "womb without a view." As the babe signs out with an "I love you, Your Baby," we see the expectant mid-section of Ma as she rocks in her waiting nursery--with, what else, a teddy named Doug all ready and waiting, cradled on her crowded lap.

As a shower or baby gift for new mothers or as a remembrance for mothers looking back on the joys of looking forward, these two books bring a few smiles and more than a few tugs at the heart strings. Happy Mother's Day to all.