Chippy Chipmunk: Babies in the Garden

Miller's sharp, close-range photographs of a chipmunk family and other backyard animals are the mainstay of this sequel to Chippy Chipmunk: Parties in the Garden. Chippy's mate, Lily, leads her six-week-old chipmunk babies into the garden, where "they huddled together and gazed at their new world with wonder and curiosity." Endearing images of the interactions among the siblings are front and center as they investigate their new world and nuzzle nose-to-nose. Miller stretches the story to accommodate pictures of other creatures: the chipmunks listen to the songs of an array of brightly colored birds, and a squirrel warns them about predators such as eagles, owls, and a cat (which is seen gazing out at Chippy from indoors). There are some overly precious moments, including a game of hide-and-seek among the chipmunks, but they don't detract much from this innocuous, if discursive, story of backyard exploration. Information about chipmunks (and about Chippy and Lily's four babies) appears on the endpapers. Ages 4%E2%80%93up.