Author(s): Sharon Holt

Picture Books

This is a warm and wryly amusing bedtime story about the bond between mothers and their babies. 'Did I hatch out of an egg like a chick?' asks Holly. If Holly were a chick, Dad tells her, her mother would have fluffed up her feathers and sat on her to keep her safe. And did she? 'Your mother didn't do that', says Dad. What would she have done if Holly were a kitten? Licked her all over. Or a shark? She'd have gobbled her up! So if her mother did none of these things, what did she do when Holly was born? Her mother held her close to her heart and cried and cried with happiness. The tender care of animal parents for their young is a reflection of the loving bond between human parent and child in this warmly sentimental picture book. In a refreshing break from convention, it is father, not mother, who tells the joyous story of birth.