School Library Journal Review
PreS-This sanitized description of being a big sister is well-meaning, but lacks tension and story. A girl goes through a laundry list of things that she can and will do with her new baby sister, and ends with, "We can even share cuddling with Mom./I love being your big sister!" Everything is positive, and lines like ".you smell so sweet-/especially your feet./I almost want to eat them, /but that would be silly!" have a distinctly adult sensibility to them. The illustrations are pleasant enough, with two cartoonish pixies with small blue eyes, oversize heads, and thin frames traipsing through the primarily pink-hued pages. Those who want a more balanced story may find Robie Harris's Hi New Baby! (Candlewick, 2000), Sally Lloyd Jones's How to Be a Baby-By Me, the Big Sister (Random, 2007), Jean Van Leeuwen's Benny and Beautiful Baby Delilah (Dial, 2006), and Kevin Henkes's Julius, the Baby of the World (HarperCollins, 1990) to be more effective.-Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Celeb-cum-mom-cum-children's author Shields offers up to shelves glutted with new-sibling celebrations a relentlessly cheery big sister's promises of happy times together. "Now that you are here, we can have tea parties ... / and super secret sleepovers." Doerrfeld's retro pastel illustrations feature two button-nosed tykes, the younger aging over the course of the book from infancy to preschool-age, although this progression is uneven, and her older sister doesn't seem to grow at all. Of greater moment than this quibble, however, is the almost total lack of nuance in the presentation: It's the (literally) rosy-hued projection of an idealized relationship rather than an honest acknowledgment of the snarl of emotions that wraps around siblings in real life. This will almost certainly sell like proverbial hotcakes thanks to its author's marquee value; thank goodness new siblings and their parents have such emotionally truthful works as the classic Peter's Chair (Keats, 1967) and Julius, the Baby of the World (Henkes, 1990) and the new Robie H. Harris-Michael Emberley collaboration, Mail Harry to the Moon (2008), waiting when reality sinks in. (Picture book. 3-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
