ALA Booklist (Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 1996)

Tell me again about the night I was born, begs a little girl, who then joyously proceeds to supply all the details herself: how the phone rang in the middle of the night; how her parents got on an airplane and traveled to the hospital, where they would pick up the baby they would adopt; how they cradled her and called her baby sweet. Curtis' use of an ingenuous childlike narrator is just as successful here as it was in When I Was Little (1993), and so are Cornell's comical, exuberant illustrations, which have great child appeal. The double-page foldout, New Baby (actual size), is a riot. The tell me again about device eventually grows a bit tiresome, and Curtis leads children slightly astray by alluding to a baby in your tummy, but that's more than balanced by the happiness and honest affection imbuing every page. Although this will be a good lead-in to Betty Lifton's more pointed Tell Me a Real Adoption Story (1994), it is a story any child, adopted or not, will enjoy. (Reviewed October 15, 1996)

Horn Book

In a refrain that begins every sentence, the young narrator asks her adoptive parents to 'tell me again' the story of her birth and introduction into the family she is now a part of. The entertaining, idiosyncratic ramble, which begins with a phone call in the middle of the night, contains details that young children will appreciate. The humorous cartoon-style pictures are a perfect visual counterpart to the text.

Kirkus Reviews

Everyone—including adoptive parents and children longing for validation of their unique experiences—will embrace this pitch- perfect celebration of true family values. Tell me again'' is the endearing catchphrase a young girl employs to get her parents to recount the creation of their family: the late-night phone call (Tell me again how you screamed''), a plane ride (and how there was no movie, only peanuts''), the trip to the hospital (you both got very quiet and felt very small''), love at first sight in the nursery (you couldn't believe something so small could make you smile so big'').Tell me again about the first time you held me in your arms and called me your baby sweet. Tell me again how you cried happy tears.'' It's all here, including a childlike family tree and a funny spread showing a ``New Baby (actual size).'' In those scenes and others, Cornell's quirky watercolors enhance the book's tone and expand on its humor, effectively alternating between highly comic scenes and quieter, more loving ones. (Picture book. 2-8)"

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 2--While Curtis's fame as an actor may get this adoption story special attention, it deserves recognition in its own right. If the title suggests a blow-by-blow description of the birth process, readers are quickly set straight; the news arrives by telephone. The narrator's adoptive parents rush to the hospital via plane, and any questions about the identity of the birth mother are brushed aside; she is simply "too young" to take care of her child. The new parents see their daughter in the nursery, howling wide-mouthed and oblivious to their pleased and loving gazes. Both participate equally in this tale; the first night home with the baby, the father tells her about baseball, holding her and a bat cradled in his arms. The humor implicit in the text is made explicit in the illustrations: watery, cartoonstyle watercolors with fine-pen accents to show outlines and facial features. This book exudes action and light; nothing here will lull children to sleep, except the warmth of feeling and comfort. It does not delve into the complexity of adoptive dynamics, but simply affirms family love, the pleasure parents feel about new babies, and how pleased children are to hear the story of their birth.--Ruth K. MacDonald, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA