Outback Babies

Australia’s wispy-feathered emu stars in this offering from the Outback Babies series (6 titles). U.S. children may be unfamiliar with this ostrichlike bird, but here they’ll follow a group of chicks that hatch from dark green eggs and eventually grow up and lose their baby stripes. Cute photos fill single- and double-page spreads, showing off the chicks’ features and other “Words to Know” (e.g., egg, dad), identified at the book’s start. Each spread contains one to two short sentences printed in a large font and set within a blue box; colorful dots label elements int he illustrations. Repetition and formulaic sentences particularly support emerging readers, as do the strong correlations between the words and images. A table of contents and mini-index offer a taste of standard nonfiction text features as well.