Go back to bed,
baby please, baby, please.

Not on your HEAD,
baby baby baby, please!

Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, producer Tonya Lewis Lee, preset a behind-the-scenes look at the chills, spills, and unequivocal thrills of bringing up baby!

Vivid illustrations from celebrated artist Kadir Nelson evoke toddlerhood from sandbox to high chair to crib.

A weary mom implores her active toddler ("baby, please, baby, please") not to write on the wall, not to eat sand, tease, and more. This sweet, rhythmic picture book, by filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, producer Tonya Lewis Lee, humorously portrays the age-old struggle between dynamo and disciplinarian. Mom and baby's day begins at 3 a.m., as we learn from the small clock that precedes the text on each spread: "Go back to bed, baby, please, baby, please." Hours later, the duo moves on to a breakfast of dry cereal at 8:45 ("Not on your HEAD, baby baby baby, please!") and toddles through a day of general glee, mischief, and foot-dragging. Nelson artfully captures the giddy exuberance of toddlerhood with close-up, kid's-eye perspectives on the diaper-clad heroine with her doe-brown eyes, tight-curled hair, luminous golden-brown skin . . and serious spunk. Of course, at the end of the very long day, the baby settles into a gentler "Kiss me good night? Mama, Mama, Mama, please." Who could resist? --Karin Snelson