The Bossier Baby
by Marla Frazee; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary    Beach Lane/Simon    32 pp.
11/16    978-1-4814-7162-6    $17.99    g
e-book ed.  978-1-4814-7163-3    $10.99

The Boss Baby (rev. 7/10) finds himself sidelined when a new CEO, a string of pearls adding just the right touch to her sleek black onesie, takes over. This Bossier Baby commands more of the staff’s devotion than the Boss ever did (or so it seems to him), and he responds by acting out—“watering” the flowers with pee, for example. The Dethronement Blues (as Zena used to call them) have proved a durable theme in picture books; Frazee composes a brisk and snappy variation that resists sentimentality until the end, where even the expected alliance of Boss and Bossier gets a little bonk on the head. Everything is round and witty in the pencil and gouache illustrations. If The Boss Baby was mainly for new parents, this companion volume will engage new big sisters and brothers as well.

From the November/December 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.