Bad Baby - Hardcover

Ross MacDonald is the author of Another Perfect Day and Achoo! Bang! Crash! The Noisy Alphabet, both named Publisher's Weekly Best Books of the Year. His illustrations regularly appear in publications such as The New York Times, and Vanity Fair. He lives in Newtown, Connecticut with his wife, Lucy, and their two children, Jamie and Daisy.

Kindergarten-Grade 3–Jack, the handsomely rugged superhero of MacDonald's Another Perfect Day, is back to grapple with his next big challenge–a new baby sister. Something is missing from his perfect life, but his initial longing and then enthusiasm for someone to play with quickly fades as the wee tiny baby grows and grows to such a size that Jack (the man) can be squashed under her palm. Her stature is eclipsed only by the enormity of her mischief–she breaks toys, draws and paints all over walls and floors, and generally terrorizes and blames Jack, while his oblivious parents dote on their little girl. Relief comes when the bad baby finally falls asleep. The tongue-in-cheek, straightforward narrative enclosed within softly colored, shaded rectangles is juxtaposed with text bubbles and explosive lettering incorporated into the pictures. But it's the stylized cartoon art in warm '40s comic-book colors that provides the subtext and tells the real story as our tiny hero is victimized by the giant toddler. Every child's fantasy is realized in the clever device of Jack's transformation from little boy to grown-up man and back again. And every older sibling's jealousy and frustration at the arrival of a new baby is here in this classic case of be careful what you wish for wrapped up in a hilarious romp.–Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY
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