Now I’m Big!

Babies are so déclassé—just ask a former one. “When I was a baby I drank from a bottle and ate with my fingers. What a mess!” writes Katz (The Babies on the Bus) in the guise of one of several supremely mature preschool-age narrators. The adorably embarrassing flashback (the baby carrier! the high chair! the horror!) is paired with a present-day scene of the girl, eating politely at the table. “Now I’m big! I can eat with a fork and a spoon, and drink from a cup!” In perhaps the biggest triumph of all, one of the children is now a mini-Mommy, helping care for her new baby sister. Although Katz underplays the physical difference of an older child—her preschoolers look like large babies, with the same ginormous round heads—the characters display so much happiness and pride in their developmental leaps that it seems downright nap- deprived cranky to complain. The confident sunniness of this book, with its bright, nursery palette and simple graphic shapes, might also serve as a gentle nudge for readers still clinging to their babyish ways. Ages 1–5. (Mar.)