Baby books: 12 - months 18 months
All Better Bears, by Hiawyn Oram and Frédéric Joos
 What a
lovely book, with a perfect sprinkling of sentimentality balanced
against a sense of reality.
When Baby Bear hurts herself, Big Bear mends everything with a
plaster and hugs. In the playground one day, Baby Bear falls out with
her friends, and that night Big Bear puts criss-cross plasters over
the image of a heart on her sleep-shirt (the sentimental bit). Next
day things go better for Baby Bear, but when she comes home, she finds
that Big Bear isn¹t at all happy. As it is "all over" bad
news, Baby Bear kisses it better all over, tickling Big Bear where it
tickled and where it didn't tickle (on the arm, in case you're
curious). There's a very clever pinpointing of a child's
misunderstanding of an adult phrase when Big Bear asks Baby Bear stop
and says: "Though the bad news still isn't good, it doesn't seem
half as bad!" This incites Baby Bear to run out of the room to
find the plasters. These are then placed criss-cross all over Big
Bear's body in a yummy picture at the end, to make everything wholly
better.
Published by Red Fox, £4.99
Benny and the Brass Band, by Karen Ludlow with
illustrations by Willy Smax
 Here's
another story about Benny the Breakdown truck that should appeal when
you and your child are in the mood for a proper read. This time, Benny
helps the local brass band, initially by carrying them in the big
parade, and then when the horn player is ill and has to drop out
guess who steps in. The text reads: "And the next day Benny led the
parade through Brummingham, going Beep beep ba doo beep!" on his
horns.
Where to next?
|
