Baby Love

Oh, baby: with your “Rosy cheeks./ Button nose./ Little fingers./ Tiny toes,” is it any wonder that everyone in the family (including the dog) wants in on a “Sweet kiss” and a “Warm hug”? DiTerlizzi (Some Bugs) and newcomer Hughes drop in on one family where baby besottedness is raging in the nicest way, following the adored one (whose gender is kept neutral) and its parents through a day of muddy gardening, playtime, and bedtime. Hughes’s baby suffers a bit from awkward proportions—the torso often looks almost toddler-like—and while her characters’ devotion is unmistakable, they don’t have particularly distinctive personalities. But whether she’s showing the family basking in the bubbles and smiles of bath time or surveying the landscape of a very lived-in living room, her crisp, fluid line and soft washes of color convey comfort and coziness, while DiTerlizzi’s pared-down rhymes move along with a meditative, bedtime-ready cadence. Baby makes three—or four, counting the pooch—but there’s no question in these pages who’s Numero Uno. Ages 4–8. Author’s agency: Gotham Group. Illustrator’s agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Prospect Agency. (Apr.)