Kittens, by Fiona Watt

Watt, Fiona. Kittens (Usborne Touchy Feely Books). Illustrated by Rachel Wells. Usborne, 2002. 12 pages. $10.95, ISBN 0-7945-0099-4

AGE LEVEL
0-12 months

GENRE
Board Book

REVIEW 
Babies will love touching the fur of the kittens on this book's thick, infant-friendly pages.  Beyond the textures, however, there is actually also a subtle message about the uniqueness of each individual.  Each two-page spread starts off with a statement on the left panel about something that "most" kittens like to do, such as "Most kittens like to play" or "Most kittens like to pounce".  The illustrations on this panel show kittens engaged in the mentioned activity.  The right side of each panel, however, always includes one kitten who is not engaged in the activity, or who has tried the activity with somewhat unsuccessful results.  The text on this right panel always notes "...but not this one".  The repetitive structure of the book will be enjoyable to babies.  The only major drawback to the book is that the textures of objects such as kitten's ears, tongues, noses, and other items are not very realistic.  This will likely not detract from babies' enjoyment, however.

LIBRARY PROGRAMMING IDEAS
As this is a larger board book, it could be read aloud during infant storytime and then passed around for each baby to enjoy individually during the post-storytime free exploration period.  A great hand rhyme to pair with this book is:

          SOFT KITTY

           (This is a good rhyme for modeling to babies how to touch gently. 
           Parents/caretakers should stroke their baby's hand as if stroking a cat.)

          Soft kitty, warm kitty,
          Little ball of fur;  
          Lazy kitty, pretty kitty,
          Purr, purr, purr.