cover image How to Rock Your Baby

How to Rock Your Baby

Sibley Fleming. Peachtree Publishers, $14.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-1-56145-142-5

Stories of addled parents often tickle children (after all, who doesn't get satisfaction from seeing the boss screw up every once in a while?), and Fleming's (Under the Backyard Sky) and Amoss's (Good City, Bad City) offering is a blithe variation on the theme. A Kewpie-doll-like infant arrives at a couple's house with its own manual, which explains, among other things, ""how to change a diaper, make a bottle, feed the baby, and then... pat, pat, pat the baby's back until Baby b-u-r-r-r-p-e-d bubbles."" But the new parents are clueless when it comes to the final direction, ""Now rock the baby to sleep."" Their ludicrous attempts to follow instructions include driving the baby around the block (""Cars rock,"" reasons the father), finding a swing, ""sailing"" out to sea (the pictures, oddly, show a rowboat), etc. Fortunately, parental instincts finally kick in, and Baby falls fast asleep in a rocking chair, cradled in Mommy's arms. Amoss's cartoony illustrations have an airbrushed quality that gives many compositions a poster-like clarity and intensity. Readers may wish Fleming's text rhymed more consistently; still, she strikes an effective balance between gentle rhythm and sheer silliness. Ages 2-5. (Mar.)