Good Night, Baby Animals, You’ve Had a Busy Day – Booklist Review

GOOD NIGHT, BABY ANIMALS, YOU’VE HAD A BUSY DAY
A Treasury of Six Original Stories
Author: Karen B. Winnick
Illustrator: Laura Watkinson

Publisher: Henry Holt
Pages: 64
Price (Hardcover): $17.99
Publication Date: January 2017
ISBN (Hardcover): 9780805098839

Six fun-filled stories featuring six adorable wild baby animals fill the pages of this amiable book. Ideal for bedtime, Winnick’s latest introduces young readers to the playful world of baby tigers, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, pandas, and gorillas. Replete with onomatopoeia and cumulative phrases and sprinkled with cliffhanging page turns, Winnick’s interactive poems highlight the active lives of these inimitable creatures. “Tiger noses sniff. / Tiger ears twitch, twitch. / Tiger tails swish, swish, swish. / What’s moving?” Watkins’ soft mixed-media illustrations include cute baby beasts with endearing facial expressions and large, inquisitive eyes, which adds warmth to the already cozy scenes. Children will enjoy identifying the similarities and differences between these curious creatures’ routines, antics, habitats, and interactions with their mothers, as well as chiming in with the refrain at the close of each story: “Good night, baby [animals]—you’ve had a busy day.” For inquisitive little ones, a two-page animal fact segment, which provides light information on the animals included in the stories, concludes the book.— Anita Lock

Posted in Uncategorized on December, 2016