Peter Is Just a Baby

In Peter is Just a Baby, the older sister relates all the things that she can do that Peter can't like using big words, learning French, and dancing. The story is cute as it leads up to Peter's first birthday and the sister hoping that Peter will now be able to do some of the things that she can do.

I love the way this book is illustrated. The characters are bears and the illustrations are soft. The pictures match the text very well and flow easily on the pages. Some of the pages have several smaller pictures illustrating different activities while other pages have one large picture. This makes the book more visually interesting than having one large picture on each page and it also allows for more activities to be shown. The book has show more really nice use of white space for the text as well. Some picture books are difficult to read if the text is placed directly over the illustration but this book avoids that issue completely. The text also flows well around the pictures which keeps the narrative moving visually.

Although there is a glossary in the front of the book with the French terms including pronunciation and definition, I didn't care for the use of French throughout the text. I took French in high school and am somewhat comfortable with the pronunciations but I can see the foreign words being a turn off to parents who are not familiar with the language. I know I don't like reading a story to my daughter if I am uncertain of how to pronounce some of the words. This is really the only thing that I didn't enjoy about this book though. show less

The six year old little girl bear in Peter is Just a Baby, is proud of her abilities and vocabulary but not quite sure why her little brother can’t do things as well as she. She hopes that he will be the playmate she longs for when he turns one, but realizes, on his first birthday, that she may have to wait another year! The book, written and illustrated by Marisabina Russo, has appealing illustrations with bold colors and simple shapes. The book uses the little bears’ French grandmother’s dialogue as a clever way of introducing simple French phrases like c’est la vie, and quelle dommage, which we are told by the dramatic big sister bear “means too bad and always gets attention”. The book is charming and will undoubtedly show more hold the interest of big sister bears everywhere. show less

I sat down last night and read Peter is Just a Baby with my 3 year old daughter and we both loved it. She has a 2 year old brother so some of the ideas discussed in the book - about being an older sibling - were things she could really relate to.

She loved the pictures and the bears' noses in particular. What I loved were the French language phrases sprinkled throughout the book.

As a former French language student (7 years and I remember very little ) it was great to be able to share these common phrases with her and see how excited she was to try to pronounce them. It's caused me to dig more phrases out of my brain to use with here when we are around the house.

A wonderful book for children with siblings, and great for those wanting to show more introduce the French language in a small way. show less

This book is great for big sisters with little brothers, Francophile families and bear lovers. Peter Is Just a Baby so he can't do all the interesting things his big sister can do... yet

The colorful block images depict the day-to-day activities of a bear family: eating, playing and celebrating birthdays. Peter’s vocabulary is limited but big sister’s language is sprinkled with French phrases (a glossary is included at the beginning of the book).

I fell in love with this book on my first reading because it mirrors my family with mother–daughter manicures, eating out with grandma, a ballerina in the family and sibling bike rides.

Highly recommended!

Many of the children in my preschool class really love this book. Babies are always a hot topic, because preschool children can usually remember when they were "little", and because someone is always anticipating becoming a big brother or big sister. There is an implied sweet relationship with the grandmother, which children also can relate to, and they love learning the handful of French words.

This tale is great. I loved it and my kids loved it. The only thing it lacked was engrossing illustrations.

It has the feel of a book SERIES that you'd love to read to your kids, and older siblings could identify with (and maybe younger siblings could empathize with).

Highly recommended, especially if the publisher got a different illustrator to re-illustrate the book with more endearing characters. The current illustrations are close, but I found myself wincing at how much better they could be.

Very sweet read aloud for young children, especially those struggling with a younger sibling.