cover image Meet My Family! Animal Babies and Their Families

Meet My Family! Animal Babies and Their Families

Laura Purdie Salas, illus. by Stephanie Fizer Coleman. Millbrook, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5124-2532-1

In a tender celebration of family, more than 20 baby animals describe the ways the adults in their lives care for them. A baby beaver has lived in one home for all of its life, but an orangutan infant gets a new nest each night: “I never know where I’ll be, but I always know she’ll be right beside me.” Coleman shows the animal families interacting in sunny, collage-like digital illustrations, emphasizing different habitats through variations in color and texture. Salas also makes some allusions to nontraditional human families: “Two dads are what I’ve got!” says a penguin chick; “I’ve never met my dad,” states a raccoon kit. In a fitting conclusion, a final spread shows groupings of four human families, including single parents, a Muslim family, and two mothers with their children. Ages 5–9. (Mar.)