WHEN YOU WERE A BABY

by Ann Jonas ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 15, 1982

The simple, direct text consists of a single thought, sustained and renewed--""When you were a baby, you couldn't. . .""--that proceeds to the foreseeable, gratifying conclusion: ""But now you can!"" ""When you were a baby"" is suggested, at the outset, by a baby's feet sticking up above a crib; what ""you couldn't"" do then is represented by a nice mix of things that come naturally to a toddler--towers of colored blocks (""You couldn't pile your blocks so high""), splashing, rubber-booted feet (""or splash in puddles in your new boots""), a doll propped on a chair (""you couldn't teach your doll to sit in a chair""). With no whole child seen--with only simple forms, flat, mellow colorings, and exceptional use of patterns--there is a constant sense of activity: ""you couldn't teach your doll to sit in a chair,"" almost an anecdote in-a-nutshell, is accompanied by an endearingly floppy rag doll who's never going to really sit up. As a very early book, it reverberates--and so one is hardly to surprised to learn that Ann Jonas is the wife of Donald Crews.

Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1982

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Greenwillow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1982

Categories: CHILDREN'S