Hello Baby! by Mem Fox & Illus by Steve Jenkins

I love this book! I am a major fan of Steve Jenkins illustrations. I mean, cut paper--looking fabulous! It amazes me every time. 

When you combine that marvelousness with babies, I am a goner. 

I didn't really know too much about Mem Fox, but I had to google her a little and I see she wrote this interesting book about kids and books and reading. The title is "Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever." 

(I love books that totally support my personal hobby horse. So reaffirming.)

Must read!  

The text is simple, letting the pictures do a lot of the work. 

And these pictures do work. Do you see all those fine little hairs made out of cut paper? a-MAY-zing. 

Are you a gecko with rolling eyes? 

Hippos with big pink mouths.

Cheetah's with long lashes.

Elephants have nice lashes too. 

Even warthogs have nice lashes. 

I am sensing a trend here. 

This is the prettiest warthog I have ever seen. 

Perhaps you are silent and scary. Are you? Because I don't want to be friends with silent, scary crocodiles. 

Wicked Winking Owl. 

And after all of this questioning, we decide that the baby is....

Well I didn't take a picture of the last page with a human baby hand because this is a library book and the last page was all ripped or something. But there it was. 

I love simple little animal books with gorgeous illustrations. 

The Animal Book by Steve Jenkins

There are way too many pictures in this post. For real. But this is a long book and it is full of all kinds of delightful animal pictures! So it was hard to limit myself.

Steve Jenkins art is done using cut paper, which makes it all the more impressive! Actually I would still be impressed if he drew these, since I can't do either. But cut paper requires a lot of patience. All those itty bits!

Aren't the colors vibrant? 

This is a pretty big book and there are a lot of full page illustrations, so those animals are BIG. 

Isn't this a friendly looking bear? 

Beetles in all their beauty. 

Jenkins talks about different aspects of animal life on each two page spread. 

There is a lot of science and biology here, which delights my nerdy self! 

Do you see those eyelashes?!

Daddies and their babies!

Babies in general

Gestation periods--elephants always win. 

Animals fighting techniques

How cool is this here grasshopper? It is giant.

Animal superpowers

Food web

I love food webs! Such intricacy! 

These here animals acquire poison from the things they eat. And that blue frog can kill 20 people. So steer clear of blue frogs. 

Large, ugly animals that we don't hang out with anymore.

Tiger, Tiger burning bright...

Teeny things, life size

Who lives the longest?

Longevity

As if that wasn't enough information for you, you can turn to the back and Jenkins will tell you a bit more about the animals on every page. 

The things that can harm animals and how to avoid them harming animals.

And then a visual bibliogrpahy (mixed with biography) of Steve Jenkins. 

This is such an amazing book! If you like animals and facts, this book will delight you no end! 

One Nighttime Sea by Deborah Lee Rose and Steve Jenkins

Have you heard of Steve Jenkins? Last summer I got a book out of the library and loved the illustrations, but when I was thinking about getting it out again to read it this time (hey, I get WAY too many library books out to read every one. I am just a very optimistic borrower. Oh sure I will read a mix of 32 adult and children's books between now and the due date! Really though, I boost the circulation statistics for the library, so I don't think the librarians mind. They say they don't, but they might just be polite...) I couldn't think what book it was. Then I saw another Steve Jenkin's book, The Beetle Book and looking it up on Amazon (I am a sucker for book reviews!) I saw The Animal Book which is the book I had been trying to remember. Then when I saw this book, also by Steve Jenkins, on the shelf at the school library, I had to give it a closer look. 

Phew. That was a complicated intro. Did you follow all that? Well you don't really need to. Pretty much, I got this book out of the library because I liked the illustrator. 

That was a much shorter introduction. (But it lacks interest.) 

Steve Jenkins uses cut paper to make his illustrations. I am not generally a fan of cut paper illustrations, but I didn't even notice that it was cut paper until looking at the close ups of pictures I took this afternoon. 

I love belugas! 

This book combines counting up to 10 and back down again,with facts about the sea during the night. 

Otters. So precious. Did you know they sleep holding hands? Could they be any more adorable?

Funky!

Sea lions. I am prejudiced against sea lions. They are weird and mean. This prejudice is not based in rational reasons, I just don't approve of them. 

They smooshed a turtle in the binding. How dare they? I like it when books turn sideways for a page or two. So interesting! 

But then I thought my intro was interesting, so I am not sure  you should rely on my opinion of interesting. 

Isn't this page fabulous? Why hello, nimble basket stars!

You can really see the cut paper illustrations in this nudibranch.

Firefly squid and the colors of the sea.

Not everything in the sea is pretty. 

The morning dawns when we get back to one! 

Pretty fun, right? I think I need to check out the other Steve Jenkins books. Poor Deborah Lee Rose. I didn't really mention her. This book is much more about the illustration. But the words complimented the pictures quite adeptly!