For a weekday in late March on Island, it was a book launch of exceptional glamour: 46 avid fans showed up. The author lectured, read and fielded questions in a turret room flanked by a small amphitheater of seats. Even paparazzi were on hand, if you count the duo from the Gazette. The reception to the reading was rousing. The questions were intelligent and penetrating. The event ended with a round of applause and a platter of cupcakes.

And so Oak Bluffs writer Kate Feif-fer tapped the Oak Bluffs Elementary School library and the whole of the first grade student body for the Island launch of her seventh children’s book, The Wild, Wild Inside: A View From Mommy’s Tummy!, with illustrations by Laura Huliska-Beith (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books, $15.99).

Ms. Feiffer explained her original brainstorm for The Wild, Wild Inside: when newly pregnant some 12 years ago, her three-year-old half-sister asked her over and over again, “Kate, what’s the baby doing?”

The nascent mom found out that the simple, shopworn answers — “The baby’s sleeping” or “the baby’s kicking” — sparked small satisfaction from the inquisitive toddler, and minutes later the question would rebound: “What’s the baby doing?” Ms. Feiffer discovered that only the most imaginative tales of what Baby was up to kept the young sibling diverted.

But Wild, Wild Inside was only a gleam in the author’s eye: she had six books ahead of her to write before that one. The first, published in 2005 (big gasp from the six-year-old members of last week’s audience, who never dreamed that anything could have happened so long ago), was Double Pink (illustrated by Bruce Ingman), a story inspired by Ms. Feiffer’s pink-passionate daughter, Maddie. At the center of the story is a little girl so devoted to the color pink that eventually the child, outfitted in a pink dress, headband and shoes, and at home in an increasingly pink room, gets literally swallowed up by her massively pink environment.

In quick succession came Henry the Dog with No Tail and Which Puppy? (both illustrated by the author’s celebrated father, Jules Feiffer); President Pennybaker and My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life (both illustrated by Diane Goode), followed by a chapter book, The Problem with the Puddles (illustrated by Tricia Tusa).

In black slacks, a salmon pink sweater and her neck swathed in a tan and pink scarf, Ms. Feiffer had her audience at “hello,” riveting them with true-life accounts of how books are developed. Once an editor accepts a manuscript, she explained, the editor “helps you to write it better.” She revealed the weird world of young readers’ publishing, where writers are matched up with artists, the two of whom work hundreds, even thousands of miles apart, at times never meeting.

“I’m lucky,” she said, “I’ve met all but one of my illustrators, and I’ve liked every one of them.” Her favorite? she was asked. “My father!” she replied with a laugh.

Once the audience was primed, she opened her new book and read from page one. The Wild, Wild Inside begins with a fresh new baby possessed of an especially round, adorable apricot-hued face who announces, “HELLO. I know what my name will be.”

The quest to name the baby, embarked upon by parents who have no idea whether their new family member is destined to be a boy or a girl, gave great delight to the assembled masses, all of whom had undoubtedly heard all the names that fell by the wayside before their own appearance in the world.

By page four, Ms. Feiffer arrived at the book’s main mantra, as the lead mom, clad in a purple maternity dress and leading both a spotted dog and a girl on a tricycle, encounters a cute little old lady, herself grasping the leash of a poodle. The old lady inquires with a point to the protruding tummy, “WHAT’S THE BABY DOING?”

By the time Ms. Feiffer described the second chance encounter and the old chestnut of a question, the scores of first graders sang out, “WHAT’S THE BABY DOING?”

What the baby is doing is rowing a bathtub boat through a huge rainstorm accompanied by a dolphin and a duck, hurtling from earth to the moon on a rocket ship, dancing en pointe on a starry stage, feeding hundreds of hungry dogs, relaxing with yoga, and belly-flopping onto home base until, by the penultimate page, the baby is, oh gosh!, being born! And out pops an apricot-colored and naked Molly, greeted by Mom, Dad, a brother, a sister, and the spotted dog.

On the final page of the book, Ms. Feiffer quotes seven kids who reveal how they passed the time in his or her mommy’s tummy. The answers included “I was surfing and hula dancing,” Mina, age 5; “It was like being inside a disco ball,” Klara, age 6; and “I was snuggly in your tummy. I had a crib and a horse and a lamb and a lion,” Madeline, age 7.

From the audience Ms. Feiffer reeled in the following accounts: “I was snoring as hard as I can,” Nathaniel. “Putting on makeup,” Grace, and “I just saw black,” Eric. All of which goes to show that the answer to “What’s the baby doing?” is never as simple as “sleeping” or “kicking.”

School librarian Lynn Van Auken hosted this hugely fun launch, and at the end she kept the exiting crowds moving past books and cupcakes, concocted by Ms. Feiffer and her daughter, which featured comic faces etched from marshmallows, candies and Cheerios.

In the coming spring, Kate Feiffer has a lineup of readings for The Wild, Wild Inside. She’ll need to pace herself because, come May, yet another book makes its debut, But I Wanted a Baby Brother, one of those great titles where the beginning, middle and end are summed up in six short words.

In June she’ll be working with executive producer and director M.J. Munafo of the Vineyard Playhouse to stage an adaptation of Ms. Feiffer’s fifth book, My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life. The theatre plans 10 performances in six days, all involving local kids as well as some fabulous grownup actress to portray the monster mom of the title.

For more information on her books, visit the Web site katefeiffer.com.