Hiroe Nakata's illustrations carry the main story and setting of a family enjoying a picnic in this delightful picture book outing. The text follows a set pattern throughout announcing that "This is the way a baby..." followed by onomotopoetic, rhythmic action words describing the baby's actions. Each spread has the human family depicting the action on one page contrasted with an animal family participating in the same sort of action on the facing page. So for "This is the way a baby rides. Bump-ity bump. Don't let go!" we see mom giving the baby a piggyback ride on the verso (dad's spreading out the picnic blanket in the background) facing a litter of opossums riding on their mother's back on the recto. Not all of these make the best sense - chipmunks run "Quickity-quick. High and low." but do babies? - but this is exactly the kind of book I like to use for baby storytime because of all the interactive opportunities that it presents. The text is great for reading aloud as long as you leave out the animal name captions and could easily work for older crowds as well. This might work particularly well with mixed age groups where toddlers and preschool children can participate on their own while parents interact with the babies.

Used for Baby Goes Bounce baby storytime 9/17/2010. ( )

This is a spin on an old rhyme. While on a picnic baby rides on her mother's back just like opossums ride on their mother's back. Baby runs like chipmunks, hides like deer, etc. A pattern is set up where the left page depicts baby engaging in the activity, while the right page has the comparable animal doing the same. On the page with baby, you can look and find the animal hidden somewhere in the scene. The illustrations on the page opposite the text label the animal and include onomatopoeia. The book features adorable water color illustrations. Recommended for babies up to the age of two. ( )

Picture Book
Throughout the book human babies activities are compared to animal babies activities. Children will love learning about how much two legged and four legged creatures have in common. The human baby in the story gets a piggy back ride just like a possum and the human baby cries for food just like a baby bird. The lyrical text will keep little ones engaged and interested. Teachers and children can have fun with this book by acting out the activities the babies participate in on each page.