Hello Baby!

Hello, Baby

Fox, M., & Jenkins, S. (2009). Hello Baby! Beach Lane Books.

ISBN: 978-1416985136

Plot Summary:

After meeting a bevy of baby animals— including a clever monkey, a sleepy leopard, and a dusty lion cub—the baby in this story discovers the most precious creature of all . . . itself, of course!

-Amazon

Analysis:

Mem Fox, an Australian author who has lived in Africa and England, has written a sweet story that is perfectly captured by Steve Jenkins’ cut-paper illustrations. The story opens with a depiction of a child’s small brown hand, and the caption reads “Hello, baby! Who are you?” The following pages are filled with colorful illustrations of a variety of animals. The final spread is an adult hand and a child’s hand reaching toward each other. The clean illustrations and simple language make this a book young children will reach for over and over.

Book Reviews:

Like her Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Fox's newest has all the marks of a lap-sit classic. In mellifluous motherese, the narrator poses a series of playful questions to a baby: "Are you a monkey with clever toes?/Perhaps you're a porcupine, twitching its nose." After 11 more such guesses (featuring such animal fares as the gecko, the hippo and the warthog), the narrator finally gets it right: "Wait, let me guess--Are you my treasure? The answer is… Yes!" While Fox is cooing as only she can, Jenkins (What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?) works his usual magic with cut paper. In many of his large-scale closeups--the images spill across and off the spreads--his subjects' big, expressive eyes seem locked in a gaze with the reader. Ingeniously stylized shapes (like the coils of gray paper that form an elephant's trunk) combine with sumptuous detailing that brings alive the parade of scales, fur and feathers. Ages 3-5. 

Hello, Baby! (2009). Publishers Weekly, 256(5), 48.

Fox's rhyming text is pure fun. In a layout reminiscent of Bill Martin, Jr.'s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Holt, 1983), an unseen narrator says, "Hello, baby!/Who are you?" and the speculated answers range from the familiar elephant to an exotic gecko. "Are you a zebra/sipping a drink?/Perhaps you're an owl/with a wicked wink." A spread near the end of the book provides an opportunity to name the baby animals by looking at their silhouettes. Jenkins's beautifully shaded and textured collages are stand-alone works of art, each of which holds its own with Fox's engaging cadences. This collaboration results in a lovely read-aloud for preschool storytimes or a perfect selection for one-on-one sharing.

Glasscock, L. (2009). Hello Baby! School Library Journal, 55(4), 104.

Connections:

This picture book would be an excellent read-aloud for young children. You could talk about human babies vs. animal babies, what makes us special, and family relationships.

Awards:

Steve Jenkins, Caldecott Honor Medalist

*This review was created as an assignment for SHSU LSSL 5361.