I love your face!

Toddler-PreS--A blondish newborn, then a toddler with black curls and deep brown skin, are but two of the children that listen to a narrator celebrate their looks: "I love your face, I really do! Nobody has a face like you!" Tan-skinned siblings with brown hair play in an inflatable pool while the text cheers them on: "Messy? Muddy? Just scrubbed clean? You've got the cutest face I've seen." An Asian mother and child are next, getting ready for bedtime, and so in one day, and one book, an anthem of praise for all things baby is born. Ford's plump-cheeked children will have young onlookers cooing, while this read-aloud will help caregivers understand the notion of positive feedback and framing. These children can do no wrong. VERDICT One step up from a board book, this celebration of great moments in babyland will work for very young SEL lessons and a generous, uplifting story hour.--Kimberly Olson Fakih

Lively, bouncy rhymes celebrate all the faces babies make. Babies display a variety of expressions as they interact with grown-ups, pets, and other children. A baby with pale skin and blond hair smiles exuberantly, while a child with brown skin and soft, puffy dark-brown hair looks out from behind a curtain. But "even when you pout and frown, / you've got the cutest face in town," reassures the unseen narrator. Love shines through, too, as the babies gaze into their grown-ups' eyes. Ford's illustrations of babies--brought to life with a vivid palette--convey a range of emotions through hyperbolic expressions, punctuated by cartoonish, sidewise mouths that at times seem artificial. The babies' races are cued through skin tone, eye color, and hair color and texture; the Asian-presenting child is primarily distinguished through a shift in artistic style from exaggeratedly round, wide-open eyes for the others to smaller ones, an artistic choice that's reinforced by the fact that the Asian-presenting child is exclusively shown looking downward or sleeping, further making the baby's eyes seem smaller than those of the others. Wilson's ebullient text celebrates the narrator's love for the babies' many faces throughout the day, amid a jaunty octosyllabic meter that skips a beat here and there ("Dream, my dear, of your happy place"). Uneven but may win out readers just the same. (Picture book. 2-5) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.