A celebration of baby love as it’s carried out all over the world.
Diverse caregivers and babies populate this picture-book depiction of caring and carrying.
Inclusivity is a hallmark of this book, but it stumbles a bit at the outset by naming two regions alongside nations: “From West Africa to Peru, from Egypt to Canada’s Far North, from Korea to India, from Poland to China and Afghanistan…families carry their babies in many different ways.” Why not name a specific West African nation or culture? A specific Arctic people? Nevertheless, depictions of families in those places and in that order use detailed, striking cut-paper collages to consciously highlight and value diversity. For example, girls and women wear the hijab on the spreads for Egypt and Afghanistan, and the depicted Korean father uses a wheelchair while wearing his baby on his chest in a carrier. Some spreads are less invested in culturally specific modes than are others. The mother in West Africa, for example, simply carries her baby in her arms, and the Egyptian brother carries his baby sibling on his hip. Others, like what seems to be a depiction of an Inuit amauti in the North Canada spread, are culturally grounded. Repetition of the phrase “upsy-daisy, baby” threads through all interactions, culminating in a scene with a loving multiracial family in an unspecified waterside setting, where a sister picks up her baby sibling.
A celebration of baby love as it’s carried out all over the world. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77147-176-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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
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
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