A pleasant throwback, perhaps in more ways than one, to picture books of bygone days.
A British picture-book power coupling presents a new baby book replete with necessary messiness.
The reality of parenthood is celebrated in tandem with the idealization of new life. Gently rhyming text offers an introduction to its tiny intended audience. “Welcome to the world. / Welcome to the light. / Welcome to the day. / Welcome to the night.” Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are invited to experience everything from bouncing on granny knees and listening to granddads playing guitars to ducks, bubbles, bananas, and more. The book is chock-full of funny moments for parents and kids, like the nonchalant parent snagging a bottle while a toddler attempts, unsuccessfully, to leap from the shopping cart. Oxenbury’s watercolor and gouache illustrations have lost none of their flair over the years, wonderfully capturing interactions between small children and parents that are sometimes less than picture-perfect. It’s a tale with an old-fashioned feeling and a more earnest outing than you might find in, for example, Oliver Jeffers’ Here We Are (2017), but it’s fun nevertheless. Yet while the cast is racially diverse and male-presenting characters are seen as caregivers as often as female-presenting ones, the spread saying, “Welcome to the girls. / Welcome to the boys,” with its emphasis on the gender binary, may limit the title’s appeal. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A pleasant throwback, perhaps in more ways than one, to picture books of bygone days. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66592-987-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt.
A love song from parents to their child.
This title will seem quite similar to the many others about parents’ deep love for their children. The text is wholly composed of first-person declarations of parental love, and it’s juxtaposed with illustrations of the child with one or both parents. It’s not always clear who the “I” speaking is, and there are a few pages that instead use “we.” Most sentences begin with “I love you more” phrasing to communicate that nothing could undermine parental love: “I love you more than all the sleepless nights…and all the early, tired mornings.” The accompanying pictures depict the child as a baby with weary parents. Later spreads show the child growing up, and the phrasing shifts away from the challenges of parenting to its joys and to attempts to quantify love: “I love you more than all the blades of grass at the park…and all the soccer that we played.” Throughout, Bell’s illustrations use pastel tones and soft visual texture to depict cozy, wholesome scenes that are largely redundant of the straightforward, warm text. They feature a brown-haired family with a mother, father, and child, who all appear to be white (though the father has skin that’s a shade darker than the others’).
It’s nothing new, but it’s also clearly heartfelt. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0652-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A good choice for caregivers looking for a positive, uncomplicated introduction to a new baby that focuses on everything an...
A little boy exults in his new role as big brother.
Rhyming text describes the arrival of a new baby and all of the big brother’s rewarding new duties. He gets to help with feedings, diaper changes, playtime, bathtime, and naptime. Though the rhyming couplets can sometimes feel a bit forced and awkward, the sentiment is sweet, as the focus here never veers from the excitement and love a little boy feels for his tiny new sibling. The charming, uncluttered illustrations convincingly depict the growing bond between this fair-skinned, rosy-cheeked, smiling pair of boys. In the final pages, the parents, heretofore kept mostly out of view, are pictured holding the children. The accompanying text reads: “Mommy, Daddy, baby, me. / We love each other—a family!” In companion volume I Am a Big Sister, the little boy is replaced with a little girl with bows in her hair. Some of the colors and patterns in the illustrations are slightly altered, but it is essentially the same title.
A good choice for caregivers looking for a positive, uncomplicated introduction to a new baby that focuses on everything an older sibling can do to help. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-68886-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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