"Love my baby's / little hands, / love those / little fingers, too. // Love my baby, / little one. / Oh, my baby, / I love you!" To the rhythmic verse Wilson has perfected, a multiethnic cast of unabashedly adorable babies express their own love to a sweet beagle puppy in a green-and-white striped shirt. Williams's soft, smudgy pencil gently provides the outlines, which are filled in with pastel-hued watercolors. Text boxes are set against pastel, patterned backgrounds and feature vignettes of the puppy and various baby-related impedimenta (stroller, socks, blankie). The babies approach Helen Oxenburylike perfection, lacking only the occasional wicked glint in the eye. Still, only Cruella de Vil couldn't love this book; everyone else will dissolve into baby-loving protoplasm. (Ages 6 mos.-2)

In this sweet, genuine board book, a companion to <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Baby Cakes, lively babies hug and hold a pudgy stuffed dog, while a soothing rhyme weaves throughout with variations on a refrain (“Love my baby, little one./ Oh, my baby, I love you!”). The babies' personalities shine through their engagement with the dog. One baby's tummy pokes out just like the dog's does (“Love my baby's tummy-tum,/ love that belly button, too”), while another baby in diapers balances on one foot, hands outspread: “Love my baby's everything./ You make life complete, it's true.” Ages 1–4. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Dec.)