Mama's Wild Child by Dianna Hutts Aston

Mama's Wild Child by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Nora Hilb

Rating: 4.5 stars

We went to the "big zoo" (compared with the local zoo 10 minutes away from us) this morning.  We had a great time, despite the heat, which provided the opportunity to enjoy a watermelon-frozen-thingie, a treat both kids thoroughly enjoyed.  Last week I checked out as many animal books I could find, with the added challenge that, crisis of all crises, we lost our library card so I couldn't pre-order our books.  We had to go and grab on the fly!  Luckily we found some good ones, including this one.

This is a flip-me-over book, so the blog entry could or should be called Father's Wild Child, too.  Basically, the book is about animal mothers or fathers and their babies.  Each page has a sweet, non-rhyming poem said in the voice of the human parent.  For example:

If I were your swan papa and you were my cygnet,

I would lead you across the lake,

and if you were cold or tired,

I would let you ride in my back,

between my wings,

where it is soft and safe.

And then, next to the image, is a random but super interesting fact about the animal.  For the swan, it is: "A mute swan father will take the first hatchling to the water while the mother keeps the nest of eggs warm."  Love the teamwork between the parents!  My kind of animal!

My favorite little factoid is about the ostrich; Aston explains that the black-feathered dad guards the nest of eggs at night while the earth-colored mama guards by day.  And another of my favorites and utterly fascinating is about the sea horse: "A sea horse father can finish giving birth to up to 1,500 fry in the morning and become pregnant again by evening."  Holy smokes!  That is bananas!  Absolutely incredible.

It is both sweet and informative--a rare combination in a children's book, I think--that really works.