There are a lot of picture books that have a rhyming text. This makes it pretty easy to find books for a particular storytime theme if your focus is on phonological awareness. It's always nice though when you're helping a patron with 
a specific book request and you come across a book that not only is what the parent is looking for but also has that added skill that you can also talk to the parent about. Such is the case with Brand-New Baby Blues by Kathi Appelt and illustrated by Kelly Murphy. The story is familiar -- once an only child, now the dynamics have changed with the addition of a new baby brother: "Once upon a time I was the only one. I was the cat's pajamas, I was the moon and sun. It was me and only me--I was the icing on the cake. I was the royal pooh-bah, the chocolate in the shake." This of course leads to the brand new baby blues. The resolution is nice with the acceptance of the new baby but also the understanding that there is going to be more fun on the horizon when the new baby is a little bit older. So the next time you get a request for a "New Baby" book, hopefully you'll have this one in your own library collection and you can recommend it to your parents.
