Love that baby!

"A book about babies for new brothers, sisters, cousins and friends" - we have found a little gem in Love That Baby!

Benji just adores it and so do I. It is not a story, it's more of an instruction manual for little kids on how to handle a new baby. It is divided into chapters on topics such as feeding, baby talk, crying and sleeping and provides little tips for kids such as "If your baby grabs something of yours, the chances are it will go right in her mouth and come back to you all wet and yucky". Ha! So true... and this pearler "Babies wee in their nappies because they don't know or care about toilets...".

I found particularly insightful the tips on how to stop a baby from crying, like holding it up in front of a mirror or a running tap (maybe not so realistic with stage 3a water restrictions). Ben seems to like the page where various excuses are offered for why babies cry, such as "My tummy is sore", "I've done poos" and "I'm tired and want to go to sleep". He also likes the games page showing peekabo and This Little Piggy, offering his toes for a tickle.

As for the illustrations, Benji loves the baby on the rug, which - if you will permit me to show off something I learnt at library school - is on the verso of the title page. And he breaks into a huge smile when we get to the series of peekabo pictures. We've read this book countless times already and it's even done a trip to IKEA.

Books have become an integral part of our daily routine now. We read a few books in the morning, a couple before Ben's afternoon sleep on stay-at-home days and then we read lots at night. He reminds me about them where we're getting his pyjamas on even. In the last few weeks he's been sitting down by himself reading one when I've picked him up from childcare. Good work Benji!

Love that baby! is by Kathryn Lasky and illustrated by Jennifer Plecas