The Wicked Big Toddlah
PreSchool-Grade 2—One snowy day in Maine, the stork delivers an enormous newborn to an astounded family. Narrated in a laconic New Englander's style by his sister, this episodic look at the gigantic baby's first year of life is milked for every ounce of its illustrative worth. Diaper changing requires hazmat suits, fire hoses, and talcum powder dispensed via helicopter; knitting hats and booties for the nipper sends a kindly lady with bandaged hands into catatonia; real boats become the toys in each ocean bath, and eating ice cream means swallowing the truck as well as its wares. Each lush spread in Hawkes's characteristic style uses space and perspective to particular advantage as it focuses on the wicked big toddlah. The many bits of visual humor will keep youngsters poring back and forth over the pages. Though the plot is thin, the sheer exuberance of the pictures and title character will keep children's imaginations stoked with the big-time possibilities of life as a giant.—Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha Public Library, WICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.