THIS MONTH’S FAVE RAVE:
What did I look like when I was a baby?, by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Tony Ross
This is a great book for those of you who like to be entertained when reading to your children.
The first scene is of a living room covered by a chaos of toys, in which a mother is being asked by her son what he looked like when he was a baby. She replies that he resembled his Grandad, whose photo is on the wall behind her.
And the sibling sitting in her lap is also the spitting image bald. The storyline then progresses to the jungle, where a baboon, hippo, leopard and ostrich ask the same question of their parents. I love the picture of the hyena grown-ups laughing as they reply that the child looked just like his father, who is currently lounging around in the middle of a pile of stripped bones, sporting a pink pot-belly identical to that on his bib-wearing hyena baby – nothing
has changed.
Published by Anderson, £9.99
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Don’t be horrid, Henry, by Francesca Simon, illustrated by Kevin McAleenan
Horrid
Henry is a difficult baby from the beginning, He put breakfast on his
head, lunch on the floor, dinner on the walls.
If you have more than one child, you will find it easy to relate to
the situation when a new baby is born. New baby Peter is perfect in
every way and Mum and Dad find it easy to love him. Henry becomes
exasperated, and conjures up all kinds of tricks to get Peter into
trouble, but they always fail because his parents aren’t ready to
believe that Henry can be good.
Henry’s best trick is to persuade the perfect Peter to draw a
Viking ship on the wall, but Henry eventually becomes a hero through a
marauding dog incident in the park. And the parental perspective
shifts for a day.
The illustrations are in a bold, tasteful cartoon style that has
great vitality, and is packed with drama.
Published by Orion, £7.99
For more books in this age range see our baby
books archive.
Also see this month’s books for babies:
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pregnancy and parenting books and videos.
