Tumblebaby
by Adam Rex; illus. by Audrey Helen Weber
Preschool, Primary    Porter/Holiday    48 pp.
10/24    9780823457175    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780823461578    $11.99

In Rex’s fantastical tale, a baby tumbles out the door and around the world without once waking up. Tumblebaby’s rollicking escapade involves besting scoundrels and coyotes (and then leading those coyotes to rescue people from a fire and build a community center), as well as grabbing the gold at the Winter Olympics. Rex’s lighthearted, folksy storytelling is full of infectious humor, such as when a small coyote tries to bite the baby and ends up getting “a ­mouthful of diaper” instead. Bouncy rhymes occasionally break up the narrative, neatly summing up and moving the story forward (“Tumblebaby hi, / Tumblebaby ho, / Tumblebaby fly / down the driveway / and go”). Pithy homespun aphorisms add bigger-picture observations, such as “money comes and money goes.” The surreal nonsense is brought to life in Weber’s whimsical, color-saturated gouache and acrylic paintings, which feature a purple Tumblebaby with a multicolored face and curved shapes that give a sense of ­tumbling movement. Ultimately, Tumblebaby returns home to their ­parents (shown only as pairs of hands, one beige set and one green). “And that baby? That was you…People always forget the things they did when they were babies.” This absurd, dreamlike story’s intriguing premise may provoke further imagining from young readers and listeners.

From the ">September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.