Baby Says

by John Steptoe

Book Overview

The legendary Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author and illustrator John Steptoe shares the story of a baby who desperately wants to get his older brother's attention. Now in board book

Spare text and lively illustrations tell the story of two brothers at opposite ends of a room. The older brother plays with blocks on the floor, while a curious baby boy watches intently from his crib.

After repeatedly...

• Format: Board book
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062847538
• ISBN13: 9780062847539
• Release Date: December 2018
• Publisher: HarperFestival
• Length: 26 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 5.9"
• Age Range: 4 years and under

Customer Reviews

An exquisitely illustrated book for toddlers

Baby Says portrays two brothers in a playroom, a toddler in his playpen and the older child playing with blocks nearby. The toddler wants to play with his older brother and seeks his attention by repeatedly throwing his teddy bear out of his playpen. When the older child indulges his brother, the toddler immediately knocks over his brother's block construction. When his older brother expresses his frustration, the toddler smoothes things over with a kiss. The story is told in a toddler's vocabulary, employing only seven words in a few phrases: "uh oh," "no no," "okay baby," and "here"; many pages are wordless. With such simple language, the action of the story is carried by the very realistic pencil drawings done in soft colors. The illustrations are primarily tightly cropped views of the space in the playroom that the children occupy, but as the story reaches its emotional climax, the illustrations shift perspective to extreme close-ups on the children's faces. This book is often considered a multicultural book because the children in the book are African-American, though ethnicity is not at all the subject of this story. Toddlers (and siblings of toddlers) of any ethnicity will relate to this simple story about the warmth of a sibling relationship. This is an excellent book for toddlers and older children to read together.