The first day of life is different for every animal. Human newborns don’t do much at all, but some animals hit the ground running. The Caldecott Honor–winning team Steve Jenkins and Robin Page apply their considerable talents to revealing how twenty two different species, from the emperor penguin to the Siberian tiger, adapt to that traumatic first few hours of life, with or without parental help. Jenkins’s vividly colorful cut-paper illustrations are eye-poppingly three-dimensional and as exquisite as ever. While the text is short and sweet, an illustrated guide provides descriptions of the twenty two animals in the back. Fantastic! "Fun and very educational."
—Booklist

"[A] handsome examination of child-rearing across the animal kingdom."
—Publishers Weekly

"Jenkins and Page's simple text effectively highlights the differing degrees of independence of a variety of species' young."
—Horn Book

"Jenkins and Page find yet another inviting way to connect young human readers and listeners to creatures who share their world . . . Appealing to a wide age range, this is another crowd pleaser."
—Kirkus

"The striking depictions of mother and child set against full-bleed colored backgrounds or clean white space should make for many return readings."
—School Library Journal, starred review

"The style would work as an easy read as well as a readaloud."
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Jenkins's masterly paper collages achieve their usual high standards of zoological accuracy and beauty. The text is shrewdly written in the first-person voice of each baby animal, mingling personality with scientific fact."
—New York Times Online