Customer Reviews

I'm Not a Baby

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My son just LOVES this book. The illustrations are great. It is set in Victorian times(with some funny "modern" additions, like a Starbucks coffee cup and basketball sneakers on the nanny). The repeating line "I'm Not a Baby" is wonderful for preschoolers and my son loves ending every page with this line. There are several big vocabulary words that make it fun and a nice learning tool to introduce some larger words to your child. (I had to look up "persnickety" and "impetuous")

Wow - this book was just a complete waste of time to read. I kept expecting it to get funny or something & was just disappointed that that's all the kid (& eventually grown up) ever says. AND worst of all - he wears his baby clothes (a romper, bonnet & booties) through the whole thing even has he grows & has his parents putting his bonnet on him for his 1st day of work. Perhaps if the writing & or illustrations were better - I don't know... As a whole - this book was no good.

Kids will resonate most with the frustration and annoyance that result from always being called "the baby" of the family. Author Jill McElmurry's clever premise takes this labelling to the extreme: Despite all the contrary evidence, and enough time for baby "Leo Leotardi" to experience puberty, marriage, and fatherhood, his family resolutely refuses to see his maturation, calling him a baby, and treating him like one. It's only when the the family sees the NEW baby that they can drop their illusions and deliver two punch lines:

"The baby's had a baby!" said Nanny Fanni." After Leo finally shouts a final "I'm NOT A BABY!" they see him for what he really is. Then, like all good neurotic families, they deny how they've treated him:

"What?", said Lulu. "Leo's not a baby?"
"Of course not!" said Papa.
"What a silly notion," said Mama.

and Nani Fanni closes with "Who ever said he was a baby?"

I was not quite as enamored of the illustrations or anachronisms as the two editorial reviewers. ALthough the color scheme is indeed unusual, it's also a bit unappetizing, with somewhat sickly looking shades of brown and green. Yes, it's funny to see the maid wearing modern sneakers in Edwardian times, and even funnier to see the comic take on period hats piled high with plants and animals). However, it's also confusing that the baby--even when really a baby--only looks a year or two years younger than his siblings. If anything, this baby never looked like a baby.

Still, children (especially those who feel some amount of age discrimination and/or envy of their older sibling) will enjoy how silly the grown-up and siblings look when they can't--or won't adjust their views. The repetitive story pattern becomes increasingly absurd and comic as Leo becomes a full-grown man complete with moustache, family, and house. My own favorite line--which some kids will get--is McElmurry's double-ayered joke as Leo asks Daisy to marry him. "Of course I will, baby," Daisy whispered.

This book was OK. It has 25 scenes, only some of which were 2 pages wide. The text never really pulled me into the story, and the illustrations were either too busy or two simple. And having "the baby" wear his bonnet and house slippers for as long as he did was a joke.

I'm not exactly sure how kids will take to this book. Some who just want to hear the spoken word and look at interesting pictures may very well love it. But a child between the age of 4 and 8 is arguably still a baby, so what lesson is she going to learn having this book read to her?

The story was about Leo who was the youngest of four children. He was always being called "the baby" and he resented it more and more as he grew older. The story ends when Leo becomes a father and his family finally recognizes that he's not still a baby.

I would have liked the book better if none of the rooms depicted had had wallpaper, and that includes the cover of the book that has green wallpaper showing. Those old-fashioned wallpaper designs were a downer for me. And I saw far too many bonnets in the illustrations. 3 stars!