Review by New York Times Review
WHAT happened to us? To America? To that industrious, boot-strappy nation of strivers, whose honest work earned honest pay? It's never been more obvious: some folks aren't pulling their weight. Which brings us to the vexing question behind Susan Orlean's first picture book: "Why don't more babies work?" In "Lazy Little Loafers," a know-it-all big sister sets out to understand why babies are such freeloaders. Her new baby brother is the perfect place to start. She dangles help-wanted ads from the newspaper over his crib. He sucks his thumb. While she trudges to school wearing a backpack the size of a Frigidaire, he lounges in a stroller with a bottle. "You don't have to be a genius to realize that babies are just lazy," she grumbles. "There are so many jobs in the world but babies never do any of them!" A writer for The New Yorker, Orlean knows a thing or two about jobs. She's written about an eclectic cast of workers, from an orchid thief to a female bull-fighter. (The bullfighter makes an appearance in "Lazy Little Loafers," standing in the ranks of gainfully employed grown-ups in one of G. Brian Karas's uproarious illustrations.) Orlean's theme - get a purpose in life, baby! - makes for great humor. Adults live in a practical world; infants do not have immediate practical applications. Nearly three centuries ago, Jonathan Swift made the sharply satirical suggestion in "A Modest Proposal" that hungry Irish families eat their young. Ten years ago, the international press went bonkers over Japanese-invented "Baby Mops," mop-lined garments that take advantage of crawling babies to sweep the floor. These days, the practical baby prize goes to Lisa Brown, creator of the "Baby Be of Use" board book series. Titles include "Baby, Mix Me a Drink," "Baby Fix My Car" and "Baby Do My Banking," which feels particularly timely. It's worth noting that this kind of humor is generally aimed at adults. After all, grown-ups are the ones who have to worry about the practical stuff. Tailoring this theme to a young audience is tough. Sometimes "Lazy Little Loafers" talks to New Yorker-reading parents, not their children. How many 5-year-olds, for example, will respond to the humor of babies who "go out for a three-bottle lunch and get a little tipsy"? "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes," illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, looks at babies around the world. Even when (Mean's prose wavers, Karas's gouache, pencil, acrylic and photographic collages build an appealing cityscape full of hilarious details and baby-coddling New Yorkers. His images also build the big sister's bravado into a narrative journey: the story of a girl who comes to terms with her new baby brother. Babies may be slackers in the workplace, but at least they're cute slackers. In "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes," two beloved picture-book creators - the storyteller Mem Fox and the artist Helen Oxenbury - merge their talents in a win-some look at babies around the world. Fox, whose rhythmic stories beg to be read aloud, doesn't disappoint here. Each verse starts with a rhyming couplet about two babies in different places and ends with a toe-tapping refrain: "Both of these babies,/as everyone knows,/had 10 little fingers/and 10 little toes." This chorus feels like an anthem. The words roll out easy and familiar, as if they'd been handed down to children for decades. Oxenbury brings each pair of babies to life in gentle watercolor illustrations. She paints the places where the babies were born, establishing distance and difference, and then draws them together on a white background. After each pairing, Fox's chorus strikes up on cue. The infants show off their chubby fingers and toes. Then they frolic together, joining a multinational playgroup that grows larger as the book goes on. Diversity is a thorny topic for picture books. It'seasyforwell-intentioned writers to sound preachy, like they're stuck in the Magic Kingdom's "Small World" ride. In "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes," the children come together effortlessly. They gather around to watch the story's finale: a tender, pitch-perfect moment when a mother celebrates the "sweet little child who was mine, all mine." Even the sweetest of babies can harbor a silly streak. The spunky hero of "Such a Silly Baby!" is no exception, stumbling into one goofy situation after the next. During trips to the zoo, the circus, the farm and the rodeo, the baby's absent-minded mother just can't keep up with him. She mistakes a different critter for her son on each outing. Then she takes the animal home instead. From the rodeo, she remembers: "We went to see a Wild West show,/and how this happened I don't know/but there was a hitch/my baby got switched,/and I went home with a buffalo!" This cheerful romp, written by the husband-and-wife team Steffanie and Richard Lorig, features a chant-along litany of animal sounds that gets longer with each new adventure, until the whole noisy menagerie ends up in baby's bedroom. Amanda Shepherd's oil paintings splash bright colors and hijinks across each double-page spread, and she scatters small surprises through the book, dressing Mom in outlandish outfits and finding room for a bug-eyed family dog in each scene. In "Baby! Baby!" a photographer, Vicky Ceelen, takes a quieter approach to the bond between humans and animals. Her wordless board book matches infants with their wild doppelgangers, catching them in strikingly parallel poses. Since very young babies take emotional cues from faces, the pictures that focus on facial expressions should be an especially big hit with them. A smiling infant, photographed from below to loom over the viewer, squares off with a baby giraffe. A napping newborn sprawls across from a sleeping cat in a similar pose. Another baby lies on his stomach, his knees bent, mirroring the posture of a resting toad. Babies and animals have another thing in common. They don't take artistic direction. This collection of moments, which echo each other so well, captures Ceelen's patience and care. Jessica Bruder is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and the author of "Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* A standout for its beautiful simplicity, this picture-book collaboration between Fox and Oxenbury aims a message of diversity and tolerance at very young children. The first lines set up the text's repetition and rhythm: There was one little baby who was born far away. And another who was born on the very next day. And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes. The subsequent spreads follow the same theme in similarly bouncing, rhyming lines: babies around the world may be different (one baby is born near ice, another in a desert tent), but the refrain of each baby's 10 fingers and toes reminds us of what we all share. Oxenbury's spare pencil-and-watercolor pictures, set against pure white pages, zero in on pudgy little hands and feet, offering many interactive opportunities for young viewers to point and count. Clusters of adorable multicultural babies from around the world toddle across the pages until just one child receives three kisses on the nose from her loving mom, a sweet gesture that parents will want to act out with their own children. A gentle, joyous offering.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Put two titans of kids' books together for the first time, and what do you get (besides the urge to shout, "What took you so long?")? The answer: an instant classic. Fox's (Time for Bed) text works off the simplest premise: babies around the world, even those who seem like polar opposites, have the same 20 digits in common. But there's real magic at work here. Given their perfect cadences, the rhymes feel as if they always existed in our collective consciousness and were simply waiting to be written down: "There was one little baby who was born far away./ And another who was born on the very next day./ And both of these babies, as everyone knows/ had ten little fingers and ten little toes." Oxenbury (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) once again makes multiculturalism feel utterly natural and chummy. As her global brood of toddlers grows--she introduces two cast members with every new stanza--readers can savor each addition both as beguiling individualist and giggly, bouncy co-conspirator. Ages 3-5. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-"There was one little baby/who was born far away./And another who was born/on the very next day./And both of these babies,/as everyone knows,/had ten little fingers/and ten little toes." So opens this nearly perfect picture book. Fox's simple text lists a variety of pairs of babies, all with the refrain listing the requisite number of digits, and finally ending with the narrator's baby, who is "truly divine" and has fingers, toes, "and three little kisses/on the tip of its nose." Oxenbury's signature multicultural babies people the pages, gathering together and increasing by twos as each pair is introduced. They are distinctive in dress and personality and appear on primarily white backgrounds. The single misstep appears in the picture of the baby who was "born on the ice." The child, who looks to be from Northern Asia or perhaps an Inuit, stands next to a penguin. However, this minor jarring placement does not detract enough from the otherwise ideal marriage of text and artwork to prevent the book from being a first purchase. Whether shared one-on-one or in storytimes, where the large trim size and big, clear images will carry perfectly, this selection is sure to be a hit.-Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool) This love song to one very special baby begins with a happy gathering of eight little ones. With each repetition of the refrain, a cheerful baby pair joins a growing multiethnic playgroup, reinforcing what they all have in common: "And both of these babies, / as everyone knows, / had ten little fingers / and ten little toes." Fox's lilting verse just has to be read aloud, and preschoolers will quickly pick up on and join in on the anticipated refrain. Oxenbury's spacious illustrations, featuring her irresistible round-headed tots (and, of course, plenty of chubby baby digits), emphasize the babies' differences and will engage even the youngest listeners in the on-page action. That action slows down when the last baby is introduced: "...the next baby born was truly divine, / a sweet little child who was mine, all mine." As the other babies stop to admire this newest addition, the text and art focus on one mother and her baby, who, as we all know by now, has ten cute fingers and toes. But to everyone's delight, this baby gets a little something extra from Mommy "on the tip of its nose." Snuggle up with your favorite baby and kiss those fingers and toes to both your hearts' content. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
