“There are babies in the bayou with black and yellow tails / and smiling mouths with rows of sharp white teeth.” Consummate nature writer and painter Jim Arnosky uses both words and visual images to create a simple picture book that flows like the water in the bayou, moving from one baby animal to the next. Arnosky’s illustrations always provide a visual clue of the animal to come in addition to showing a host of other bayou creatures never mentioned in the narrative, which focuses on alligators, raccoons, turtles, and ducks. White birds described at the beginning of the book are referenced only visually at the end, and young children will delight in discovering this circularity. (Ages 3–6)

There are many babies in the bayou, and even though they might have sharp white teeth, hard shells, webbed feet, or quick claws, their mothers still need to protect them.