Maxine’s Critters Get the Vaccine Jitters

A biracial child named Maxine is the encouraging center of Zauzmer’s rhyming picture book about vaccination. When Maxine, who has one pale-skinned and one brown-skinned parent, tells her roomful of stuffed animals that it’s vaccine time, the multicolored critters express concern. “Something smelled fishy./ Their mood turned to wishy;/ you might tack on washy./ This scary plan they wanted to squashy,” read uneven lines detailing the animals’ dread. After Maxine explains why the shot is necessary, the stuffies brave the vet—Maxine’s brown-skinned caretaker, armed with a stethoscope and bandages—and the child later receives her own vaccine. If some art is strangely proportioned, Douglas’s dynamic digital illustrations nevertheless help to focus on the narrative’s stilted, if abundantly clear, message in a picture book for children who prefer to alleviate fears via role-play. Ages 2–5. (Feb.)