Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Read, Read, Read, said the Baby: Bathtime by Alice Le Henand, illustrated by Thierry Bedouet

This French import is a "pull and play" book, i.e. you pull a tab to change the pictures. The back cover lists the social-emotional aspects, reassuring, encouraging, supporting, and empowering kids at bathtime.

The cover shows a scowling purple bear in red underwear and their worried parent. Pull the tab, and the cub is happily splashing in the tub while the parent laughs. Each spread follows this same theme. In the first, a brown bear cub wants to keep playing, despite their mother's request to get in the bath. She tells them they can play in the bath, pull the tab, and they are doing just that. In the next spread, Kangaroo insists on washing himself, while his mother gently reminds him to wash all over. A monkey says "Baths are no fun, Daddy!" but then wonders if his stuffed toy needs a bath too. Crocodile refuses to get in the tub, until Daddy checks the water temperature. A father cat makes a fluffy bubble hat to wash his kitten's hair. The last spread shows all the children with their parents, wrapped up warmly in towels and bathrobes, and thanking their daddies for their baths (although there are two mothers included).

The cheerful pictures are colorful but simple, showing a variety of colors in the animals and their clothing. This book stands out with the preponderance of involved fathers, although some recognition of the mothers pictured would have been nice. Some of the children are identified as boys, others are given no gender. The pull tabs are sturdy, made of a thin cardboard that should hold up well unless kids leave them pulled out and then bend them, which they probably will.

Verdict: I'm at the point where I consider all board books to be an ephemeral collection and figure I'm doing good if they last for 2-3 years with an average of 30 circs. Anything with a movable part drops that time, but this is a fun book that caregivers and kids will love and sturdy enough to be worth the cost.

ISBN: 9782408012823; Published August 2019 by Twirl/Tourbillon Editions; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

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