Janeen Brian (text) and Renée Treml (illustrator), Look, Baby!, Little Book Press, July 2020, 32pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780648551034
Look, Baby! explores the exciting world of new experiences for babies. With the help of each family member including grandma and grandpa, this Baby learns to see the world in all its wonder.
Readers will experience the oceans, skies, and land from a baby’s perspective and be taken on a unique journey of first sights and sounds. From the biggest of oceans to the smallest of ponds, there is always something new to discover.
Janeen Brian’s use of minimal, rhyming text works well with Renée Treml’s delightful illustrations to shine and drive the storytelling. Along with helpful cut-outs, creating a window for interactive reading, babies and toddlers will enjoy discovering page after page of the world around them.
There is plenty of inspiration for activities that cover the senses and encourage exploration. Toddlers will love the ‘look and find’ activity at the end of the book, creating opportunities to build listening, memory, and vocabulary skills and help boost their language proficiency from an early age.
A strong focus on multicultural families throughout makes this book universal and a celebration of cultural diversity no matter where we are in the world.
At the heart, is a message of the importance of families spending and sharing time together.
Look, Baby! is an ideal introduction to the world for babies and toddlers and is a book to be shared and enjoyed in homes, early learning centres and libraries far and wide.
Reviewed by Shelley Stephens