Upside Down Babies

PreS—When the world goes topsy-turvy, animal babies are tumbled into the wrong habitats. Told in verse, the text generally scans well. However, American readers may not be familiar with the semantic differentiation between land-dwelling tortoises and water-dwelling turtles and may wonder why the baby tortoise can't swim. Another source for confusion is the camel/polar bear pairing, "Polar Bear landed in the desert sand./Poor Mommy Camel couldn't understand/Why he had the hump and growled a lot./There wasn't any snow. He was far too hot!" Unless readers are familiar with the Briticism, they won't know that "having the hump" means being in a bad mood, and may question if an error was made. Despite a few sticking points, the rhyme scheme is varied, and the story is short enough for read-aloud enjoyment. The boisterous illustrations feature cartoon animals shaded with a surprising depth of color that is quite beautiful, and the overall effect is bold and bright. The animals are friendly looking (except for the strange sloth), and their expressive features heighten the humor of the text. This title will be popular with the storytime crowd.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN