Illustrations and rhyming text reassure a series of barnyard babies, as well as the reader, that mamas always come back.

Celebrates and chronicles the surprise birth and endearing milestones of Beco, a baby Asian elephant, born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Columbus, Ohio. Beco learns to swim, use his trunk, play with toys and follow directions, all under the watchful eye of his mother, Phoebe. Also included is information about baby elephants, how elephants are taken care of at the zoo, and a section on elephant conservation.

"In a tiny village in rural Iran, Zal's demented mother--horrified by his pale skin and hair, the opposite of her own--becomes convinced her baby is evil. She puts him in a wire birdcage on her veranda with the rest of her caged flock, and there he stays for the next ten years: eating birdseed and insects, defecating on the newspaper he squats upon, squawking and shrieking like the other birds.He is rescued from that hell and adopted by a behavioral...