Babies Around the World

March 27, 2017
This multilingual board book greets children in eight languages as it makes its way around the globe over the course of a day. Airy lines, a patchwork of patterns, and splashy colors create a mood of carefree energy in each city: “Bom dia, mundo (Good morning, world),” offers a Brazilian baby as it crawls across a sandy Rio beach, the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering over the landscape in the distance. In Egypt, a woman wearing a Cairo T-shirt and hijab holds up her daughter, as though readers are a guest in their home: “Marhabaan ‘asdiqa’. (Hello, friends).” Although the languages aren’t identified, only the cities, it’s a lovely portrait of kindness without borders. Up to age 5.

July 1, 2017

Babies-PreS-Babies and their families greet neighbors and friends throughout the day in New York, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, London, Paris, Cape Town, Cairo, Beijing, and Tokyo. The final spread has a papa bidding his baby "Nite nite!" in San Francisco. Fun digital collage landscapes grace each spread along with the standard greetings (and translations). A fun way to introduce different parts of the world and the universality of baby love around the globe.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
Ten babies in 10 countries greet friends in almost 10 languages. Countries of origin are subtly identified. For example, on the first spread, NYC is emblazoned on a blond, white baby's hat as well as a brown baby's scoot-car taxi. On the next spread, "Mexico City" is written on a light brown toddler's bike. A flag in each illustration provides another hint. However, the languages are not named, so on first reading, the fine but important differences between Spanish and Portuguese are easily missed. This is also a problem on pages showing transliterated Arabic from Cairo and Afrikaans from Cape Town. Similarly, Chinese and Japanese are transliterated, without use of traditional hanzi or kanji characters. British English is treated as a separate language, though it is, after all, still English. French (spoken by 67 million people) is included, but German, Russian, and Hindi (spoken by 101 million, 145 million, and 370 million respectively) are not. English translations are included in a slightly smaller font. This world survey comes full circle, ending in San Francisco with a beige baby sleeping in an equally beige parent's arms. The message of diversity is reinforced by images of three babies--one light brown, one medium brown, one white--in windows on the final spread. A cheery board book to reinforce the oneness of babykind. (Board book. 2-4)

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