Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
It's Hard to be a Baby
Cheryl B. Klein · 2024
82/100
👍 Worth It
Cheryl B. Klein nails the tricky task of writing a book that genuinely works for babies, toddlers, new siblings, and the adults reading aloud — the warmhearted humor lands at every level. Juana Medina's award-winning illustrations add visual warmth and diversity, and the starred-review praise from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus is well earned. Families with conservative views on family structure should know that same-sex parent households appear in the illustrations.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: same-sex parent family depictions in illustrations — conservative faith families should be aware. We still scored it 82; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety80
substance76
craft86
originality78
accuracy85
hype80
age-fit88
human-eye84
Penny’s verdict82
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