Baya, Baya, Lulla-by-a - Hardcover

Megan McDonald is the author of Is This a House for Hermit Crab? (winner of the IRA Picture Book Award), Whoo-Oo Is It?, and Tundra Mouse, all illustrated by S. D. Schindler; The Potato Man and The Great Pumpkin Switch, illustrated by Ted Lewin; and The Night Iguana Left Home, illustrated by Ponder Goembel. Her titles for older readers include the popular "Judy Moody" books. She lives with her husband, a counselor, in Sebastopol, California.

PreS-Gr. 2. A mother (Mata) in rural India weaves and embroiders a safekeeping blanket for her baby girl "thread / by thread / by whispering thread," while in a nearby tree a mother baya bird weaves grasses and petals "up down around / its vining, twining nest." As Mata knots her chadr scarf in the tree and her baby swings in the tiny hammock, Baya Bird calls a warning "mother to mother" of a slithering cobra close by, and the baby is saved. Weaving in Hindi words, the poetry is rhythmic and beautiful, and the richly detailed watercolors are filled with the movement, warmth, and patterns of cloth and quilt. It's not clear who the audience is here; the story is certainly too complex to be a lullaby. But older children, especially those interested in Hindi culture, will enjoy the music of the words, the connections with nature, and, above all, the physical evocation in words and art of how a baby feels wrapped in a mother's loving embrace. Hazel Rochman
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