If You Were Born a Kitten

Marion Dane Bauer's If You Were Born a Kitten (1997), illus. by JoEllen McAllister Stammen, makes a fitting board book, with just one line of text per spread, as it describes how 11 animals come into the world (""If you were born a kitten,/ you'd slip into the world in a/ silvery sac, and your mother/ would lick, lick, lick you free""). The book ends with a baby's birth: ""You rode curled beneath your mother's heart,/ growing and growing...."" In a starred review, PW called it ""lovingly maternal, soothing and perfect for bedtime.""