Book Review for Hello Baby! by Mem Fox
Bibliography
Fox, M. 2009. Hello baby! (Jenkins, S.). Beach Lane Books. ISBN: 9781416985136
Plot Summary
In this story, a baby is looking at different animals to see if they have any characteristics that the animals do. Each page is a different animal and has a way for the reader to compare to themselves. It features rhyming words and easy to read pages with a sweet connection for parents and baby at the end of the book.
Critical Analysis
The characters in this story are different animals that are described with different characteristics. This story has accurate descriptions of each animal and what it can do. There is no setting in this story, the focus is on the different animals and their characteristics. Each animal comes with a representation of their body to show what the animals look like. The background is white while it talks about each animal. Since this story portrays different animals, it is accurate with its description of each. The animals get one interrogative sentence that ends in a question referring to whether the baby has what the animals have or not. This book compares animals to humans and the different ways we can do some of the same things as animals. The book offers detailed pictures of each animal, and they are portrayed as friendly and approachable. The illustrations are big and take up a lot of the page and which is appropriate for smaller children to be able to see them up close.
Review Excerpt(s)
“A warm authorial voice asks baby, “Who are you?” and a parade of potential animals follows. Rhyming questions introduce furry and scaly candidates, creating an irresistible call-and-response, conversational reading experience. Young readers will surely answer each erroneous guess with an emphatic, enthusiastic “Noooo…!” Jenkins’s vibrant cut- and torn-paper close-ups of exotic animals appear on double-page spreads of ample white space, giving readers room to thoroughly consider both illustrations and text. Vivid swaths of color and texture capture elephant wrinkles, crinkly gecko skin and even warthog whiskers. A small, full-body silhouette of each animal appears as well, providing a glimpse of the creature in motion. Fox’s original language offers equally strong depictions of wildlife. She all but animates the stellar illustrations: A monkey fidgets with “clever” toes, a crocodile sits “silent and scary” and an owl gives readers a “wicked wink.” Anticipation builds as baby waits for the right answer, which comes as a sweet finish on the final page. This picture book brims with fascinating animals, brilliant words and engaging artwork; it begs for cozy nightly readings. (Picture book. Newborn-5) -Kirkus Reviews
Connections
* A fun follow-up activity for this book for younger students would be to do some research on an animal of their choosing and write one sentence about their animal and then they can do a tear art picture of their animal.
*-Other books by Mem Fox:
-Ten little fingers and ten little toes
-Time for bed
-Where is the green sheep?
Comments
Post a Comment