Hi New Baby!

Reprising the family first introduced in Happy Birth Day!, Harris and Emberley return with another sensitive and visually sumptuous portrayal of a domestic milestone: the arrival of a second child. This time it's the father who narrates, as he tells the book's heroine, an unnamed preschooler, about how she reacted to her rumpled-faced brother's arrival. Initially, the big sister thinks he is ""too noisy"" and ""boring."" But then she realizes that by comparison, she is downright mature (""That baby doesn't have any teeth! I have so-ooo many teeth. And I can brush all my teeth. That baby can't!""). Working in full-bleed spreads in glowing peach tones, Emberley creates warm, intimate pictures (the audience is often just beyond the characters' noses); by frequently framing the action at the girl's eye level, he captures the full force of her stormy emotions. By the final page, the girl is sufficiently won over, enough to say ""Hi new baby,"" rock her brother and even savor the deliciousness of new-baby smell. A sympathetic, credible approach to a reluctant sibling's plight. Ages 2-8. (Sept.)