From: Gillian Chan <gillian.chan>
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 16:13:32 -0700

Megan identified a whole bunch of characteristics that make for successful books for babies and toddlers, then threw out the question what else.

Well, depending on the child, quirkiness and incongruity. Allan Ahlberg's
"Bye Bye Baby" springs immediately to mind. My son, now seven, loved it when he was about two, and for a year we had to read it to him at least several times a week. In case, you don't know it, it's the story of a baby who lives by himself, even changing his own diaper (as Ahlberg says, "It was very sad"), until one day he has enough and decides to go and find a mummy. What then follows is the baby asking everyone and everything he sees to be his mummy, including a cat, a wind-up hen, a teddy bear and an old uncle.

I found the book bizarre and rather creepy and, for a long time, was puzzled as to why my son loved it so much. After a lot of thought, I came to the conclusion that it was because it was bizarre and that, even at two, he had come to have certain expectation of how babies were treated and that this book made him laugh so much because it turned those expectations on their heads.

We continued on an Ahlberg kick for quite some time, and whereas he loved nothing quite so much, it was the quirky details of Janet Ahlberg's illustrations that still appealed to him. So, in "Each Peach, Pear, Plum" it was the fact of the three bears tripping and accidentally shooting down baby bunting's cradle that made him laugh out loud.

All the best,

Gillian Chan

gillian.chan at sympatico.ca http://www.gillianchan.com
Received on Wed 07 Aug 2002 06:13:32 PM CDT