cover image Baby Time

Baby Time

Marc Tolon Brown, Laurene Krasny Brown, Yeh. Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, $12.95 (42pp) ISBN 978-0-394-89462-1

Brown's ingenious guide offers solid suggestions for parents interested in enriching a child's early development. Designed with parents (or grandparents, babysitters, siblings, etc.) as well as babies in mind, the book's text is limited to brief paragraphs at the top of each page, with the remainder of the space devoted to the gentle, pastel illustrations. Together, text and pictures outline ideas for activities such as bathing, massaging, singing and shopping--all commonplace events that, with a little thought, can serve to stimulate a baby's five senses. Although the Browns haven't come up with anything particularly new or earth-shattering, their efforts have produced an agreeable addition to a parenting bookshelf and a worthy companion volume to the more detailed advice of Spock or Brazelton. All ages. (Nov.)