Babies in the Bayou by Jim Arnosky (2007)

 

This is a fun introduction to some baby bayou animals: alligators, raccoons, turtles, and ducklings. The language is simple and rhythmic, with the phrase "there are babies in the bayou" as a pleasing refrain. There's really no story, so it reads almost like a non-fiction book. Illustrations provide many opportunities for dialogic reading: conversations about the animals mentioned, and about the animals shown but not mentioned, and about other features of the bayou that are shown but not told. It's especially good for vocabulary , introducing new words ("droop," "plop," "shepherds") along with just-right pictures that give context so they can figure out what they mean. Also some alliteration, subtle enough that it enhances the flow of the text, rather than distracting from it.

Steven Engelfried