Baby Squeaks

by Anne Hunter

Overview

A baby mouse says their first word, and their second, and then many, many more in this hilarious and relatable parenting moment by Geisel Honoree Anne Hunter.


Baby mouse has learned to squeak. And now it’s squeak, squeak, squeak all day long.

Baby chats with new friends and old friends, big friends and little friends, and sometimes just chats with no one at all. Poor Mama needs a break . . . but when Baby wanders off, Mama knows what to do: follow the squeaks!

Little readers will love this chatty baby mouse, and big readers will find Mama’s reactions very familiar . . . Anne Hunter’s delicate and lovely illustrations highlight the humor in this delightfully funny tale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735269095
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	05/31/2022
Series:	Baby Animals
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD170L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

ANNE HUNTER is a Geisel Honor–awarded illustrator and picture book writer best known for her books about animals and nature. Anne grew up in Lake Worth, Florida, and now makes her home with the foxes and the owls and the skunks and her family in the woods of Southern Vermont.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/21/2022

The gift of gab proves deeply funny in Hunter’s (Where’s Baby?) earnest portrait of early language acquisition. Baby Mouse starts out as a quiet infant, but after the diminutive mammal utters a first word, then a second, language flows suddenly and inexorably forth. Speech balloons of varying sizes, comically filled with typewritten lines that repeat only the word “squeak,” emanate from Baby Mouse as the youth is fed, carried, and tucked in to bed. When Mama, seemingly in need of a moment’s peace, places her child outside their tree home, the mouse is unfazed. “Baby talked and talked... and talked,” encountering various animals who turn tail, and finally, a young fawn who simply conks out in the face of Baby Mouse’s chatter. In a full spread, elegant ballpoint pen and colored pencil images—which follow finely cross-hatched, grayscale figures atop a sky blue background—show Baby Mouse relaxing upon the snoozing fawn’s back, an enormous word balloon floating above them. When Mama Mouse awakens, panicked, from a nap of her own, Baby Mouse’s squeaks lead her straight to her child’s location—gently instigating a moment of silent succor, and a final image that honors, without judgment, both parties’ realities and needs. Ages 3–7. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (May)

Publishers Weekly

A Publishers Weekly Best Picture Book of 2022

"[E]legant ballpoint pen and colored pencil images . . . gently instigat[e] a moment of silent succor, and a final image that honors, without judgement, both parties' realities and needs." —STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly

"Lighthearted and relatabe." —CityParent

From the Publisher