Hello Baby! by Mem Fox

Hello, baby!
Who are you?

Are you
a monkey
with clever toes?

Perhaps you're
a porcupine,
twitching it's nose.

These are some of the lyrics in Mem Fox's new book, Hello, Baby!

The concept behind the book are possible answers to the question "who are you, baby?" Different animals are suggested as possibilities until the end of the book where the final question is asked... "Are you my treasure?" [The answer, of course, is yes.]

Considerations:::
The pictures and lyrics give adults and little ones many different ways to interact (which I love). You can talk to children about the animals, their colors and actions. You can yawn like the hippo and wink like the owl.

In general, I have high praise for this book. My only hesitation to giving it an all-out rave review is the artwork. While some of award winning illustrator Steve Jenkins' paper-work is brilliant. Love the owl. Love the lizard. Some of it is rather dark and muddy and a bit off-target for very young children. The monkey's tail, for example, is just a black tail, quite unremarkable. And the porcupine is somehow not cute.

However, Mem Fox's prose overcomes most of these small faults. Once again, she is brilliant and clever and has written a book that's good conceptually, and a Great Read-aloud to boot!

Hello Baby! would make a lovely gift. There is a lot to recommend it; I only wish the artwork was more playful.