cover image Baby’s First Book of Birds & Colors

Baby’s First Book of Birds & Colors

Phyllis Limbacher Tildes. Charlesbridge, $7.99 (18p) ISBN 978-1-58089-742-6

Tildes (Baby Animals Take a Bath) pairs nine colors (if one counts black and white) with birds that show off each hue. The birds are labeled by name and sex, and they perch in and around foliage that helps make the pages explode with color: an eastern bluebird sits on a birdhouse entwined with morning glories, a thrush and wren scavenge for food on a forest floor dotted with brown leaves and mushrooms, and a downy woodpecker does its thing on a birch’s flaky white bark. As she often does, Tildes concludes the book with a spread featuring human children, though it feels overly posed and visually jarring beside the preceding pages. Up to age 3. (May)