Urban Babies Wear Black by Michelle Sinclair Colman

This week we got Urban Babies Wear Black by Michelle Sinclair Colman and illustrated by Nathalie Dion from the library.  I can't decide if it is a tongue-in-cheek look at babies doing things that are stereotyped as urban (in a yuppie kind of way) or meant to be true.  The book is 18 pages long and has words on the left with a picture on the right.  It begins with the titular urban babies wear black and has the babies doing yoga, visiting art galleries, jogging (in a stroller), drinking latte, enjoying architecture, appreciating fine dining, going to the opera, and taking a taxi at the end of the day.  

I think the art is cool and very expressive, but I'm not completely happy with some of the messages.  There are many reasons children shouldn't drink coffee, and the page pictured below contradicts us when we tell our son he's too young for coffee.  

Babies shouldn't drink lattes.

When the baby is appreciating fine dining the child has his finger pointed in the air and is shouting "garçon" while being spoon-fed peas by a pair of ultra-skinny arms… it's not the way we'd want our child to treat people.  I think it speaks to my main problem with this book: I think it is targeted not at the child but at the parents.  It's like another book that was popular a few years ago called Go The F--k To Sleep, not meant for the kids' enjoyment but the parents'.  If I had a friend obsessed with living in the city and being "urban" and they just had a baby I would get them this book as a joke.  And if they used it as some kind of urban baby bible to brainwash their child into liking opera and being a snob I would be sad.

I do really enjoy the art in this book, it has a cool and distinct style.  I read that the artist, Nathalie Dion, is from Montreal, and would be interested to know if she had any particular city in mind when she created the illustrations.

The art is very cool

I do think the book is cute and somewhat humorous, but we read these books for our kids so I have to go with how they react to it.   My 10-month old isn't really that into it, nor has it captured the interest of my 2 1/2 year old.  It's a quick read and I'm not upset by its playful jest about urban babies, but I wouldn't need to purchase this book for myself (or take it out of the library again).  There are more in the series about beach babies, country babies, foodie babies, and more.  Any of them would probably make good gifts to make fun of people who want their kids to identify with those labels.

The bottom line: this book is okay.

We Love Each Other by Yusuke Yonezu

This week we took out this board book at the library by Yusuke Yonezu: We Love Each Other.  Board books are great because they can withstand the rough handling of young children, and my 10-month old insists on holding her own book during story time.  My 2 1/2 year old is capable of turning the pages of a regular picture book, but he still creases them and tears them occasionally so I still lean towards reading board books with them.

We Love Each Other is an adorable and simple book with cut out pages that turn two animals, who (as the title would suggest) love each other, into a geometric shape.  Shapes include a heart, triangle, circle, semi-circle, trapezoid, square, and rectangle.  The pictures are cute and the expressions of the animals change so they are smiling when they are together on their final page.  The book is 28 pages long but only has words every fourth page, so it can be a quick read.  

In searching for images of the book I found another site that named this their book of the week on February 12, 2014.  The images below demonstrating how the cut out pages work come from the make light home made photography blog:

The cover (the right side of the birds is cut out)

On the first page the birds are apart

Then brought together again revealing a heart

The blog suggests this book for Valentine's Day, which is a fantastic idea.  Here are some more images from the book demonstrating the artwork and how the animals become shapes:  

The rabbits form a trapezoid

Two rectangular bears...

...make a square

The back cover

I also found this article from the New York Times with a paragraph (the second in the article) devoted to the book.  The article, Love for the Littlest by Sarah Harrison Smith, was published on February 5, 2014 and puts my review to shame in its eloquence and ability to stay on topic.  Seriously, read this:

In “We Love Each Other,” a board book, the Japanese artist Yusuke Yonezu (“A Cup for Everyone”) uses clever cutouts to convey — without ever stating outright — the message that loves completes us. As readers flip the glossy cardboard pages, animals first shown next to empty spaces meet their mirror images, and the happy couple together form a new shape. Two little red birds snuggle side by side to create a heart; blue mice, with their noses in the air, lean in to construct a triangle; a big elephant and a little one combine to make a semicircle; and so on. At last, a group of cats break the pattern because, as parents well know, sometimes one plus one equals three. Yonezu incorporates simple sentences that may be within reach of some early readers, but his ingenious pictures are the main attraction.

Smith's review reveals a shortcoming of the book for single parent families, as this final image of the cats might be exclusionary.

My children really like this book, and love the pictures.  It's a quick read and has cute and familiar animals.  This is a great book for Valentine's Day.

The bottom line: we like this book.

Mommy! Mommy! by Taro Gomi

It's been such a long time since I've written about my child that now I have to say children because we've had a second child.  Over the months we've started going to the local library's story hour every week, and read quite a few new children's books.  I thought it might be a good way for me to ease back into writing here if I shared some of my favorite books - books that we take out over and over again or have purchased because we liked them so much.  I'll review one book per post to keep things manageable, and try to talk about a variety of topics.  Maybe I'll develop some categories to use in considering each book, but now things are getting complicated and I want to let this evolve on its own.

Mommy! Mommy! by Taro Gomi

The first book I have chosen is Mommy! Mommy! by Taro Gomi, a book we borrowed from the library.  It's a board book, and 11 pages long.  Taro Gomi is the author and artist, and when you open the book the left and right sides of the page form one image.  The images are simple and very cute, and the story is almost like dialog to a game of hide-and-seek between some baby chickens and their mother.  The chicks mistake a flower and some kind of warthog thing for their mother and say oops, and I don't want to spoil the ending but they do eventually find their mother.  The book averages a little more than two words to a page, in part because of a five-word last page.  It is the simplicity of this book that makes it so good, and there are a lot of cute little details in the art that seems familiar but different in a way.



This is a book that has all of its publishing information on the back cover, and I learned a lot from it before I googled the artist and learned even more.  The back cover reads:

"Babies know their mommies anywhere.  See, there she is right- wait, that's not Mommy!  Acclaimed author and illustrator Taro Gomi creates a playful world where readers follow two chicks on a search through the barnyard for their mother hen."

The book also has an original copyright of 2004 being published in Japan by Crayon House Co., Ltd.  It was first published in the United States in 2013 by Chronicle Books LLC., and was translated by Chronicle Books.  So I thought that was cool, and it may have explained some of the art.

When I googled Gomi I instantly recognized his book Everyone Poops, which I think is well known in the United States.  I didn't have it as a child, but I'm sure over the years I've seen it in the houses of friends with younger siblings.  He also has a storybook The Crocodile and the Dentist that looks familiar to me, and I think when we go to the library again I will look for more books by Taro Gomi.

My 2.5 year old likes the book, and my 9-month old loves the book as well.  She sits and watches the book the entire time, unlike when we're reading some wordier books and she tries to squirm away.

Both of my children love Mommy! Mommy! by Taro Gomi, and the book provides a lot of opportunity for silliness with its adorable art.  It can be an introduction to Gomi's work and to Japanese art and culture.  There's a simple grammar lesson there too, as the hen says at first "here I am," then later switches to "there you are."

The bottom line: we like this book a lot.