This Baby. That Baby.

Best (Bug Off!) opens this double infant portrait with two babies greeting each other from their respective fifth-floor apartment windows, “somewhere/ in the big, big city/ across a beep-beep street.” One infant, “this baby,” has dark brown skin and curly black hair that “bounces when he giggles.” The other, “that baby,” has light brown skin and sports a floppy red hat that “falls off/ when she wiggles.” Via stylized multimedia spreads predominated by browns, blues, and reds, Kheiriyeh (A Persian Passover) draws this baby and his mama, who “sing about a baby whale,” and that baby and her papa, who sing “the baby shark song.” Across the street from one another, they have their diapers changed, eat, and respond to nap time. And when both parent/child duos head to the park, “Look who’s here!” and “Look who’s there!” This buoyant slice-of-life tale interweaves the duo’s temperamental differences, love of joyful noise, and patient caregivers against the background of a city’s cheerful hubbub, underscoring the ways that proximity can contribute to relationships and interactions. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Melanie Kroupa, Rubin Pfeffer Content. (Feb.)