A girl in pig tails and beige-and-yellow striped pants is happy (mostly) to have a baby sibling in this book that makes a great baby gift for an older sibling.
With a minimal rhyming text and a limited palette, the team behind Plant a Kiss zeroes in on a big sister's reaction to learning about a baby coming, and then her embrace of the new addition. "The big news is this:/ Little Miss/ will be a big sis." Reynolds shows Little Miss actively listening to her mother (who points to her stomach) as a thought balloon depicting a baby appears over her head. When the infant comes home, the big sister helps, carting a wagon full of bottles, diapers, book and Teddy bear. She stays near the baby's crib and helps at mealtime (Reynolds shows the baby flicking food at Little Miss: "Help with bib. (What a sib!)"). As the pages progress, the baby (who's never assigned a gender and wears yellow) grows. The older sister uses a puppet to entertain the baby, who can now sit up. A four-part vignette depicts the baby's first steps ("Crawling, crawling. Falling, falling"), then running through the house, a tad older, a few pages later. Even when her younger sibling "sometimes takes toys. And sometimes annoys," the bond between the two remains constant.
Rosenthal and Reynolds anchor the activities in everyday life so all children can see themselves, on a swing, making forts, playing clapping games and tag. The story ends at bedtime, with the two siblings sharing a room and a bunk bed. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness