Lullaby & Kisses Sweet: Poems to Love with Your Baby

Review By JESSICA ALMY

My kiddo’s baby days have long since passed us by, but I love this collection of short read-aloud poems for babies! Nonhuman animals attired in bibs, shorts, and even eyeglasses are the focus of the illustrations, but they’re not the narrators. Instead, all the poems are told from baby’s point of view.

Divided into five sections–family, food, firsts, play, and bedtime–this board book is in fact an anthology of poems. They each stand on their own, but their collective brevity and warmth makes the book an easy read in a single sitting.

Parents of vegetarian and vegan babies will find much to like in this book, particularly in the “food” section, which celebrates rice cereal, apples, oranges, watermelon, and spaghetti. There are so many delicious foods for older babies to enjoy!

The only potentially problematic food the book depicts is “milk.” Given that the American Academy of Pediatrics advises that no children should drink cow’s milk before 12 months of age, I would expect that the baby’s milk is either breastmilk or formula. Still, the illustration seems to suggest otherwise. Perhaps the baby depicted is already 1 and the “milk” is soymilk the whole family enjoys? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

All in all, Lullaby & Kisses Sweet is a delightful book that babies and their caregivers are likely to enjoy. I recommend this book for ages birth to 18 months.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.