Walton is the latest school district to impose a sweeping ban on books that are deemed inappropriate for children. 'Everywhere Babies' is part of a collection of 58 books that the Walton County School District removed from library shelves. I mean, you can't figure out this mindset.' But maybe they think we're trying to indoctrinate kids from the cradle on. 'It seems odd to me that this is banned, because it's a preschool book, a family book,' Meyers said. Meyers added that 'Everywhere Babies' had previously been featured on LGBTQ children's book sites. But how do they see this, that any time a man puts his arm on another man's shoulder, it means they're gay? It doesn't seem obvious to me,' she said. 'I think there's one illustration they don't like, where it's two men.

Meyers told the Post she speculates that the book was banned because there is an image of one man embracing another in it. The book's author, Susan Meyers, was inspired to write the book five months after the birth of her first grandchild. (Apr.The Washington Post on Friday reported that the Walton County School District banned 'Everywhere Babies,' a rhyming picture book published in 2001. A charming paean to the adoration (and accessories) that families lavish on their offspring. just as they are!''), it's Frazee's canny wit that tips the work away from sentimentality to evoke a wide range of emotions.

Rhyming text in smaller type elaborates on each theme: e.g., to ''Every day, everywhere, babies are carried '' Meyers adds, ''in backpacks, in front packs, in slings, and in strollers, in car seats, and bike seats, and on Daddy's shoulders.'' As Meyers builds to the expected coda (babies being ''loved for trying so hard, for traveling so far, for being so wonderful.

''Every day, everywhere,'' as each spread announces in hand-lettered display type, babies are either collecting kisses, getting schlepped, exhausting their parents (a state that Frazee portrays with knowing and hilarious precision), toddling or growing. The pages that follow prove that ministering to babies is all-pervasive as well.

''Every day, everywhere, babies are born,'' writes Meyers (Hello Jenny), as Frazee (The Seven Silly Eaters) presents the first in a series of wry, elegant watercolor vignettes: a row of multiracial, swaddled newborns whose expressions range from ''How did I get here?'' to utter boredom.

Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers