

The rich Native American tradition of carrying babies safely, comfortably and close to their mothers in cradle boards endures to this day. Cradle Me celebrates Native American families and shows how they carry their babies.
It is impossible for me not to have positive feelings when I look at the faces of babies. Debby Slier's Cradle Me had me happily gazing at the faces of babies from eleven different tribal nations in their cradle boards. Inside are babies in their cradleboards, smiling, frowning, peeking, touching, crying, yawning, thinking, looking, sleepy, and sleeping. Beneath each of those words is a line for a parent/librarian/teacher to write that word in--perhaps--the Native language of the child the book is being used with. It is a powerful book because the images are photos, not drawings, and because Slier included a two-page spread that specifies each baby's tribal nation.
Cradle Me
In a book tailor-made for babies (who love looking at other babies), Slier introduces eleven infants from different Native American tribes, safely and (for the most part) happily secured in their cradleboards. Each picture is accompanied by a single word describing the baby’s actions or emotions. The culturally specific and the humanly universal are both depicted here.