Mama's Bayou
PreS—"Mama's by you on the bayou,/rocking you to the sounds of the crickets./Chirp, Chirp" begins this lullabye. As the pages turn, various animals are rocking their babies to sleep—each has a special sound that is added to the verse and repeated. At last, after Mother Black Bear plays her fiddle ("Big bash"), the bayou quiets down for the night ("Hush, Hush") and the animals sleep. Imaginative cut-paper and collage illustrations with the stylized figures of animals and swamp flora set against dark blue backgrounds enhance the text and give the book distinction. There is a small glossary at the back with one-sentence definitions of the plants and animals pictured, although nothing is labeled. There are several excellent picture books about the swamps of Louisiana and Florida. Kathi Appelt'sBayou Lullaby(HarperCollins, 1995), Donna M. Bateman'sDeep in the Swamp(Charlesbridge, 2007), and Jim Arnosky'sBabies in the Bayou(Putnam, 2007) come to mind. If another is needed, this offering will entertain and inform preschoolers.—Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.