Published: 2022
Author: Ben Lerwill
Illustrator: Katharine McEwen
Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction
Audience (Grade Levels): Elementary School (Grades K-2)
Number of Stars: 5 Stars
Goodreads Link: Do Baby Elephants Suck Their Trunks?
Triggers: None
Review By: Serena Waldron
Publisher’s Summary:
Babies are everywhere and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some can even swim, fly, or run soon after they’re born! And although it might not seem like it, human babies have a lot more in common with a whale calf or a lion cub than you might think. Learn about ten baby animals and all the amazing ways they are just like us.
A perfect read-aloud, this book encourages the youngest of readers to think about what makes them unique while also learning about ways in which they might be similar to babies in the animal kingdom—from giraffes wobbling as they walk to puppies losing their baby teeth. Each spread is fully illustrated with heartwarming collage artwork that depicts the love between parent and child across species.
Review:
I thought the setup of this book, comparing baby animals to baby humans was a fun premise that would hook younger readers. Each two page spread asks a question such as, “Do you suck your thumb?” and follows it with information about a baby animal that engages in that same behavior as well as why it behaves that way. The illustrations were bright, colorful and engaging as well. The range of animals covered would be interesting to most kids and it could make a great book kick off a basic elementary animal research unit.
Classroom & Curricular Connections:
- Life Sciences (Animal Behaviors & Biology): This informational picture book serves as an excellent introduction to early elementary science units covering life cycles, animal adaptations, and survival traits. By connecting common human toddler behaviors (like sucking a thumb or losing baby teeth) to animal traits (like a calf sucking its trunk or a puppy shedding teeth), educators can explain the physiological reasons behind how animal offspring navigate their environments.
- Early Childhood Development & Comparative Thinking: The dual narrative structure fosters essential critical thinking skills in early learners. Teachers can use the question-and-answer format to help early elementary students compare and contrast cross-species behaviors, cultivating an early appreciation for biology while building personal connections to the natural world.
Extension Activity / Library Application:
- “Just Like Me!” Guided Animal Research Unit: Capitalizing on the reviewer’s suggestion that this text makes an ideal launchpad for an elementary animal research unit, use the book during library media centers. Have students select an animal not featured in the book, identify one physiological trait or habit it shares with human infants (such as sleeping patterns, vocalizations, or learning to walk), and draw a comparative chart to present to the class.
- Interactive Storytime Read-Aloud & Movement Station: Given the book’s high-interest, repetitive question framing, design an interactive library storytime. Ask the text’s opening questions directly to the young audience (e.g., “Do you wobble when you walk?”), prompting students to physically mirror the movements of both the animal and human babies described in Katharine McEwen’s collage illustrations.
Diversity & Representation:
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The text celebrates meaningful equity and natural inclusion by emphasizing universal commonalities across different species and environments. By highlighting heartwarming parent-child relationships and diverse developmental behaviors across ten varied animals, the narrative introduces young children to global ecological diversity, fostering empathy, connection, and an early awareness that all living beings share fundamental stages of growth and care.
Readalikes:
- Whose Baby Is This? by Wayne Lynch
- Born in the Wild: Baby Animals and Their Parents by Lita Judge
- Mama’s Built a Little Nest by Jennifer Ward
