Cave Dada

It may be the Stone Age, but it’s the same old story: at bedtime, Baba is stalling by insisting their father read a book. “Dada tired. Hunt gather all day,” says the weary parent. “Ug. Baba feel cry,” says the savvy kid, who has three strands of hair and wears a fur diaper. Of course, Baba doesn’t want any book but the biggest, and in this era, that means it’s carved on huge stone tablets. Dad seems to know that nothing he does to postpone the inevitable meltdown—including inadvertently inventing fire—will relieve him of his duty, though “Dada feel cry, too.” Working in earth-toned, digitized pencil and gouache, Reese (Oothar the Blue) mixes comics-style framing with generously scaled spreads (the baby’s angry red face is particularly attention getting) to take parent and child from standoff to sweet, slumbery reconciliation. The story’s elements don’t add up to any big surprise (Baba is of course adorably asleep when Dada finally arrives with the book), but the prehistoric trappings add newfangled comic sheen, and the cave-speak dialogue (rendered in angular chiseled type) should make for a giggly readaloud. Ages 3–5. [em]Agent: Jennifer Mattson, Andrea Brown Literary. (Mar.) [/em]