Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Who's That Baby? New-Baby Songs
Illustrator: David Diaz
Poetry Picture Book
For infants to age 4
HarperCollins, 2005 ISBN: 0060529393
When a new baby arrives in a household, parents are usually overwhelmed with joy and confusion. There is so much to learn about how to care for the baby - this little person who seemingly came out of nowhere to fill their lives with so many experiences and emotions.
In this very special picture book Sharon Creech celebrates the arrival of a new baby. Her poems are so musical and lyrical that when they are read they are like a lullaby, a song just for a baby to listen to.
Most of the poems are told from the point of view of the baby, which is charming and unusual. We hear from a little girl baby who is a “pearly girl / a bella, bella pearl am I.” Of course, we also hear from “a little boy / so full of joy.”
One little baby tells us about how it is bundled up like a “baby burrito,” and another tells us about the way in which his father tosses him in the air as if he were a football. Yet another new arrival tells us about its grandmothers, two big ladies who look at the baby “smiling their great big smiles.” We also meet a father who plays music for his infant “’cause he loves me,” and a mother who is warm, has “soft skin, “bright eyes,” and a “sweet smile.” The baby tells us how much it loves to be held close so that it can hear its mother’s “beat-beat heart.”
This is the kind of poetry book that grownups will love to share with the new baby in their life. It was certainly written for babies and toddlers but it also feels as if was written for the grownups as well.
