Please, Baby, Please

Filmmaker Spike Lee and wife Tonya Lewis Lee join the ranks of other celebrity kids' book writers with their sweet, rhythmic read-along about the endless energy of a toddler blasting through a busy day. The Lees' diapered dynamo starts early (the VCR reads 3:01 a.m.), with the little girl outlasting her mama sprawled out on the living room floor ("Go back to bed, baby, please, baby, please"). A breakfast of upturned Cheerios follows a few hours later ("Not on your HEAD, baby baby baby, please!"), then play time, a trip to the playground, dinner, and a bath ("Please don't splash, baby baby, please, baby!"). The fun repetition doesn't change up until the book's sweet close, as the curly-haired tyke somehow can't get to sleep ("Kiss me good night? Mama, Mama, Mama, please"). The Lees have as much or more success than their high-profile counterparts (Jerry Seinfeld: Halloween, John Lithgow: Marsupial Sue; and Jamie Lee Curtis: I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem), thanks in large part to their excellent choice of illustrator Kadir Nelson, whose work has appeared everywhere from Sports Illustrated to the New Yorker. Just as he did with Will Smith's Just the Two of Us, Nelson uses his enormous talent to inject energy and emotion into each richly colored, Rockwellian spread. (Baby to preschool) --Paul Hughes