cover image Baby's Breakfast

Baby's Breakfast

Emilie Poulsson. Henry Holt & Company, $7.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-3868-2

When it comes to making Baby's breakfast, this board book takes a sunny-side-up approach. Each page features a cheerful gouache picture of a smiling animal, person or insect, each of whom contributes a special ingredient for the meal. What they offer (a cow: milk; a chicken: egg; a bee: honey; a baker: bread) is hidden behind a gatefold flap (a cow peeks out from behind a barn door; the oven door hides the baker's golden loaves). Poulsson's (1853-1939) simple, four-line rhymes on the facing pages let the characters say their piece (""Said the hen, `Cluck cluck cluck!/ I have laid an egg/ For the Baby's breakfast--/ Take it now, I beg!' ""). Debut artist Cecil's pictures, however, do say it all-especially the final one, showing Baby in breakfast bliss. Ages 1-4. (Mar.)