Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Ma! There's Nothing to Do Here! A Word from your Baby-in-Waiting (Picture Book) (edition 2008)by Barbara Park, Viviana Garofoli (Illustrator)
Work InformationMa! There's Nothing to Do Here! A Word from your Baby-in-Waiting (Picture Book) by Barbara Park
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This story is essentially a somewhat comical message from an unborn baby to his mother. The baby complains about multiple aspects of his current state, from the cramped conditions of his current location to its lack of recreational options. By the end of the book, the time has nearly come for him to be born, and he mentions the various things that he will need once he arrives. This amusing book is told from an unborn baby's perspective as it waits impatiently to be born. The rhyming is cute and the illustrations are fabulous. Though listed as a young children's book, it seems more suited as an expectant mother's book. I thought at first it could be used as a concept book to explain or answer questions a young child might have about a new baby sibling, and it actually might be a book kids would enjoy, but it's more of an entertainment than an actual "education." It is mighty cute. no reviews | add a review
A baby still waiting to be born describes the boredom of living in a small, cramped space where there are no toys and no one else can be "it" during a game of tag, then considers how life will change when Baby joins Pop and Ma in the outside world. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
A baby complains about how boring it is inside his mom and imagines all the things he could be doing. Finally, he realizes he needs some more time to grow but promises he'll be coming out soon.
The drawings are dominated by the baby with its giant head. Most of them are fanciful, but the baby has an umbilical cord more or less and the final picture shows him sliding down a twisting chute to be born.
It's very busy and text-heavy for a board book and is likely to raise questions about the birth process, if that's a concern for your parents. I can see older kids and adults finding it very funny, but it's all wrong for a board book audience.
Verdict: This should never have been adapted to a board book - it's a picture book story both in complexity of text and illustrations and in subject matter. I seem to be seeing more and more picture books adapted to board books when they don't work in that format at all. I don't know if this is something mainly done by Random House or if I just review more of their books.
ISBN: 9780307982193; Published 2008 by Random House; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library prize box