Huggable! A Caboodles of Cuddles for the Baby You Love by Alice Luffman et al

ONE LITTLE BEAR CUB

ONE BIG BEAR HUG.

Where does baby belong? Why, with his or her family, in a warm embrace, of course!

Roger Priddy Books has a new style of board book, the "Picture Fit Board Book," with tactile raised figures of a series of endearing babies and fond families--a puppy, penguin, bear, dolphin, and koala--and the sort of hug he or she loves, whether it be in a pod, basket, or eucalyptus tree--which fit into the recessed facing page. The animals are pictured simply, yet identifiably, and the repetition in the text is enticing.

There are endearing baby animals with names to learn and some ear-pleasing alliterated text to engage the youngest in this Picture-Fit title, Picture Fit Board Books: A Caboodle of Cuddles (Priddy Books/St. Martin's Press, 2018), created by Alice Luffman, Nocole Friggens, Penny Worms, and Amy Oliver, a fun salute to family affection just published for young board book lovers.

CRIB READY! Baby Animals (Indestructibles) by Stephen Lomp

THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF BABIES.

LIKE YOU, THEY LOVE TO PLAY.

Appealing puppies, kittens, elephant calves, ducklings, koala joeys, and turtle hatchlings--what little one could resist? With lively baby animals, portrayed in bright colors and playing under the watchful eyes of their parents, this little book comes with instant appeal for infants and toddlers.

But Steven Lomp's Indestructibles: Baby Animals (Workman Press, 2017) also represents one of the biggest advances in book publishing since Gutenberg first cranked up his printing press--a "crib ready" book that proclaims itself as rip-proof, chewable, non-toxic, and 100% washable. Book-loving parents who have cringed at what happens to the best-made of baby board books--used as chewing rings, tossed and ripped and dipped in the potty, and otherwise beaten up by babies who love them to pieces--will rejoice at the new Indestructibles series, even advertised as "dishwasher safe!"

With quite a variety of topics in this new series, such as Amy Pixton's Indestructibles: Baby Night-Night Kate Merritt's Indestructibles: Love You, Baby and Lomps' Indestructibles: Things That Go!,, these very inexpensive and indestructible books for the very youngest are a great choice for new parents and a boon to daycare centers where daily sanitizing for playthings is a major issue. Baby books that are the best thing since sliced bread? Maybe!

Washing Up! Baby Animals Take a Bath by Marsha Diane Arnold

Not everyone in the animal kingdom bathes, of course. Snakes don't. Cicadas don't. But maybe staying in their dirty old skins isn't such a great idea. After all, snakes have to shed those old skins. And crustaceans like cicadas molt. And both groups are in danger from predators while they are in the midst of these tedious processes.

But most other little creatures have better ways to keep clean. Baby polar bears and baby fur seals go to opposite extremes in the name of hygiene.

Baby seals choose sun baths. Baby polar bears seek snow baths.

Some babies just make use of their natural equipment. A tiger cub takes a bath with his tongue. A baby elephant uses his flexible trunk to take a shower.

Some small creatures take advantage of whatever is in their environments. A chickadee picks a handy puddle. A snow monkey chooses a steam bath in a hot spring. A baby zebra rolls in the dust, and baby hippos hop in the mud.

And the youngest humans kick and splash bubbles in their baby bathtubs, in Marsha Diane Arnold's Baby Animals Take a Bath (Charlesbridge, 2017). Arnold crafts the simplest of texts, with each full picture page featuring an adjective and a noun, in a board book that may even empower emergent readers.

Tongue bath.

Trunk bath.

And with artist Phyllis Tildes' charming and detailed illustrations of expressive baby animal faces, not to mention their textured fur and feet, it seems each one happily enjoys its own style of bathing, an incentive to young humans who may be reluctant to take to the suds.

Big As Life! Real-Size Baby Animals by Marie Greenwood

AWWWWWW! Everyone loves charming pictures of young animals, and no one loves them more than people who are youngsters themselves!

Dorling Kindersley's new nature study book, Real-size Baby Animals (DK, 2012), with text by Marie Greenwood, takes advantage of the popular toy-and-movable-book movement in this handsome, large-format book which offers full-sized vertical and horizontal gatefold pages which open up to show a variety of young animals, in natural positions and in actual dimensions.

The lead-off chapter, "Chirpy Chimps," features an infant chimpanzee holding on to a tree limb in a full-length vertical fold-out photo executed in the publisher's signature spot-art style.

Following the big-eyed baby chimp, young readers will meet a tiny new penguin, only a double handful for its zookeeper, a baby crocodile looking almost cute, playful puppies, the head and forequarters of a newly foaled pony, and a fuzzy lion cub. Other smaller animals--owlets, kittens, goats, ducklings, and lemurs--fit onto the regular large-size page format and are shown in full color with their siblings or parents, often in their preferred habitats.

Each brief chapter includes the basics of the animal's characteristics, with heights in inches and centimeters, featured text boxes with salient facts and figures (e.g., baby rabbits are technically called "kits" or "kittens," not bunnies!) about each animal, and text describing habits, behaviors, and habitats. The book contains a very helpful glossary, with terms such as "down," "camouflage," and "burrows," and additional helpful resources.

All this comes, of course, with Dorling Kindersley's usual gorgeous color photography and realistic illustrations by Jenna Riggs of these babies at play and in sleep. A great "occasion" gift and a useful and educational book to share with preschoolers or for primary grade students who need report material or just want to read about these animal babies.

Who Is New At The Zoo? Zoo Borns by Andrew Bleimin and Chris Eastwood

THEY CALL ME RADAR EARS, AND I'M A FENNEC FOX.

MY BIG EARS HELP ME HEAR YUMMY INSECTS CRAWLING IN THE SAND.

LISTEN! DID YOU HEAR THAT?

In Andrew Bleimen's and Chris Eastland's new ZooBorns!: Zoo Babies from Around the World (Beach Lane Books, 2010), zoo-born newborns are shown in full-page headshots in all their infant beauty. There are the usual little ones, Beco the Asian elephant, Kai and Darga, baby Bengals, and Rooby, the little kangaroo joey, with all their baby charm caught in appealing close-up color photographs.

And then there are more exotic babies--Amani the ocelot, Susa, the banded mongoose, Tahina, the crowned sifaka, Matari, the wombat, Bella the Beluga whale, and even a baby okapi, Kalispell, who manages to look quite cute despite his unabashed self-description:

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU ADD A ZEBRA'S LEGS TO A GIRAFFE'S BODY--AND THROW IN A LONG, BLUE TONGUE?

ME!

ZooBorns!: Zoo Babies from Around the World (Beach Lane, 2010) is a surefire winner for the early childhood zoo lover, with fascinating photos of baby animals and just enough information about each in the short, snappy text to stick in the memories of listeners. Appended are silhouettes of each animal with a short description of its habits, behavior, and habitat, coded as well to show whether the animal's conservation status is critically endangered, endangered, near-threatened, or of least concern. A must-have for the preschool animal bookshelf!