Seven Babies

3.5

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Author(s)

Forest Xiao

Publisher

Candlewick Press

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

August 26, 2025

ISBN

978-1536245097

Buy This Book

The cuteness meter is off the charts in this sweet and funny story from an exciting new picture-book talent, celebrating the chaos and joy that babies bring to our days.

One Thursday morning, a box of babies arrived at this door.

What do you do when a box of seven irresistibly plump babies appears on your doorstep? Do you invite them in? Of course you do! But seven babies turn out to be a lot of work: feeding, changing, wrangling, entertaining, bathing, so much laundry . . . Good thing babies love watching the washing machine spin around and around! Filled with the most adorable, relatable, and perfectly round-headed babies ever to grace a picture book, Forest Xiao’s celebration of the mess and the marvel of a new arrival is an ideal gift for little ones and anyone who loves them.

Editor review

1 review

You'd also need a huge box of diapers!

October 12, 2025 (Updated: June 29, 2026)

Overall rating

3.5

Plot

3.0

Characters

3.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

When a box of seven babies, infants all of the same size but representing a wide range of skin tones, show up at a couple's door, they take them in without asking any questions. The babies make themselves at home, pulling books off the shelves and trying to eat the carpet. They are enthusiastically greeted by friends and relatives, and enjoy playing, baths, and watching the washing machine. They even help hang out the laundry! At the end of the day, they snuggle up in bed to read, but sneak out in the middle of the night, taking their box on another adventure at another home!

Good Points

This is a bright and cheery book, with all of the babies dressed in bright yellow pajamas and diaper covers that all have different patterns on them. The backgrounds have a lot of blues and greens that really make the yellow pop, and there are other yellow accents as well. the drawings have a very minimalist quality to them. The babies heads are very round, and their features are tiny but expressive.

If you look at the pictures closely, you can see that the babies all have personalities. For instance, the baby in the polka dot pajamas is always chewing on something; a flower, the carpet, someone's arm, or the page of a book. Another baby is always asleep, and another is constantly clinging to someone. This makes it easy to read the book again and again, looking to spot little differences in what the babies do.

While I'm not quite sure what the point of the story is (Where did the babies come from? How far do they get crawling and dragging their box? Doesn't anyone report them to Children's Services?), I know that this is just meant to be a silly romp, and that young readers will just be delighted at the antics and the absurdity of having a box of babies show up at one's door!

This reminded me a bit of the equally unusual Time for Bed, Little Owls by Alves, and will be a hit with readers who enjoy baby-centric fare like Best and Kheiriyeh's This Baby, That Baby.