The Schuberts (Where's My Monkey?
) return to the animal world, this time focusing on the bonds between parent and child that cut across all species. Taking advantage of the large trim size, full-bleed watercolors and even small panels brim with details that construct an irresistible if imaginary animal kingdom: among many exchanges on the opening spread, a baby elephant befriends the bear cubs reclining in their mother's lap; baby crocodiles perched atop their mother's toothy jaws check out a mother lioness while monkeys play overhead and owls observe the scene, in broad daylight. Diversity, however, is exactly the Schuberts' point: all kinds of animals have babies, “just like people.” From there the husband-and-wife team survey a wide range of parenting styles (“Mother sea horse... doesn't do much after she has laid her eggs in Father's pouch”) and explore differences in life-cycle stages (“Kangaroo and platypus babies are not much bigger than a bean!”). But always they return to the key idea: like those at the top of the food chain, animals have unique families that do everything possible to protect and care for their little ones. The prose is warm and soothing, but the art, packed with quasirealistic, playful animals, will have readers fully alert and poring over the pages. Ages 2-6. (Feb.)
