Big Bad Baby - Hardcover

Bruce Hale has written and illustrated more than 30 books for young readers, including the award-winning Chet Gecko Mysteries and Snoring Beauty, one of Oprah's Recommended Reads for Kids. He lives in Santa Barbara, CA, with his wife, dog, and serious collection of hats. By all accounts, Bruce was a cheerful baby, although a tad mischievous.

Steve Breen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist whose comic strip Grand Avenue regularly appears in more than 150 newspapers. He has also written and illustrated several popular picture books, including Pug and Doug, Violet the Pilot, and Stick. Steve has five children of his own, so he definitely doesn't know anything about baby tantrums. Nope, not a thing. He lives with his family in San Diego, CA.

PreS-Gr 2—Sweet Little Sammy is having a bad day, and no one knows exactly why. After chasing the cat and "redecorating" the kitchen and bedroom wall, he needs bigger badness to satisfy him. A Monster Machine transforms him into Big Bad Baby, whose BURP uproots trees and overturns cars. He strides down the highway, picking up trucks, drawing on the sides of buildings, and making a stinky mess in his diaper. Police, firemen, and even librarians are powerless to stop him. His resourceful mother follows on a bicycle and is aboard one of the helicopters that drops his giant blue blanky over him. Big Bad Baby becomes—at least outwardly—his own sweet self again. His mother snuggles him in her arms and says, "Big bad babies need love too." This is fortunate because the last page shows Sammy with a maniacal gleam in his eyes, planning to take over the world. Cartoon artwork done in watercolors and colored pencil capture the havoc the giant baby causes, and the expansive spreads are filled with humorous details.—Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN