Whose Baby Is This?

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

This informational book is designed as a guessing game for children.
Each double-page spread has a close-up photograph of a baby animal,
sentences describing typical behavior, and the question “Who am I?”
The following two pages give the answer through photo and text and
provide interesting trivia in a sidebar. Seven animals from four
continents are featured: anteater, hawk, opossum, cheetah, squirrel,
loon, and kangaroo. Some clues, such as “a baby like me is called a
joey,” make it easy for the child to guess. But where the animal is
not as familiar, it is harder to guess the exact identity. A child may
recognize the animal as a bird of prey or a water bird, but not that it
is a hawk or loon, so the book is also an adventure of discovery that
will pique a child’s interest.

Because of the game aspect there is no table of contents, just an
introduction to the difference between human and animal babies and an
invitation to play. The pages are numbered and there is an index
(although the opossum was inadvertently omitted). The full-color
photographs are excellent and the text’s large type is appropriate for
both the lap crowd and early readers. Recommended.