"I am a baby, this is my crib, this is my high chair, this is my bib."
Photos of happy babies and words that encourage make this an irresistible read-aloud for every child and family. From the author of the critically acclaimed A Kiss Means I Love You and Show Me Happy comes a delightful approach to visual learning.
November 1, 2016
Toddler-PreS-Glowing smiles and innocent eyes of baby faces greet children at each page turn in this photo-illustrated read-aloud. With wide-eyed expressions, the photo subjects identify, introduce, or reinforce names of common objects and people in a baby or toddler's world. "This is my crib,/this is my high chair,/and this is my bib...diapers,/...clothes,/...fingers/...toes." Rhyming text introduces father, mother, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa, and a range of pets and toys, while each photograph "speaks" with a child's voice. "That is my doggy,/and that is my cat./Here is my jacket./It matches my hat." Text presentation, which consists of simple sentences and a large font with easily identifiable images, offers opportunities for word identification with beginning readers. A final spread display includes diverse family groups with babies and pets, each photo emphasizing loving relationships and belonging. VERDICT A general purchase recommendation for libraries with robust collections for young families and beginning readers. Perfect for lapsit programs.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 15, 2016
Rhyming text paired with cheery photos of racially diverse babies creates a warm invitation to reading for little ones and their caregivers.The text is delivered in the first-person singular, but images of different babies from page to page avoid having a particular baby represent the eponymous "I." For example, a black baby in pink is the first baby depicted in the book proper, and then the page turn reveals a fair-skinned toddler with long brown hair over text reading "this is my crib," facing a page with an olive-skinned baby in gray and blue and text reading "this is my high chair, and this is my bib." Ensuing pages show babies with various items and then family members. The introduction of a father with one baby, then a mother with another, followed by a baby with grandparents, risks excluding diverse family constellations, but several multiracial families are included, and there's one later image that could be read as a baby with two moms (though the fact that this is the same baby as on the page with the singular text "this is my mother" makes this reading a little ambiguous). Throughout, most photos show babies looking directly at the camera, which enhances the engaging presentation for the youngest of readers. Here's a book to help babies one day say "I am a reader." (Picture book. 6 mos.-3)
COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
July 1, 2017
A child narrator identifies familiar objects and people in this read-aloud. Simple rhymes--"these are my clothes, / these are my fingers / and those are my toes"--accompany colorful, candid-style photographs of babies of different ethnicities and their families. Nothing inventive here, but the rhythmic text and large, close-up images of faces will keep the attention of the very youngest audience.
(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)