Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Carry Me! Animal Babies on the Move
Nonfiction Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Peachtree Publishers, 2008 ISBN: 978-1561454495
All over the world, young children are carried around by their parents and family members. They are cuddled in arms, perched on shoulders, or taken for a piggyback ride on backs. Animal parents also carry their babies around, and they have evolved a wide variety of methods to do this.
We begin with a large anteater, which carries its child on its back. Baboons from Africa and bats carry their young on their chests. Father and mother Emperor penguins have their chick perched on their feet.
What is interesting is that mammals and birds are not the only ones who carry their babies around. Mama spiders carry their large families on the top part of their body, and American alligators and African cichlids (a kind of fish) keep their babies in their mouths!
With a minimal text and wonderful illustrations, Susan Stockdale shows young children how animal parents of all kinds carry their children around. Science is combined with warming images of parental love to create a lovely picture book that adults will enjoy sharing with the children in their lives.
