So Much!

by Trish Cooke, Helen Oxenbury (Illustrator)

Overview

Auntie and Uncle and Nannie and Gran-Gran and all the cousins want to hug and kiss the new baby—they all love the baby SO MUCH! Illustrations by Helen Oxenbury brim with the warmth of a large, loving extended family.

Mom and baby are home alone when—DING DONG!—Auntie and then Uncle and Nannie and Gran-Gran and the cousins come to visit. And they all want to hug and kiss and squeeze and eat the baby right up—because everybody loves the baby SO MUCH! With Helen Oxenbury lending her characteristic warmth and humor to a most exuberant family party, Trish Cooke's rhythmic, cumulative story captures the joy of being the baby in a large extended family—a baby who knows that he is absolutely, utterly adored.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763640910
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/23/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	193,297
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 11.60(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	AD500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

Editorial Reviews

Cooke masterfully captures the closeness of the family and the wonder of the baby . . . A celebration of a warm and loving African-American family. Oxenbury's illustrations are magnificent.
—Kirkus Reviews

The blend of Trish Cooke's repetitive, lively prose and Helen Oxenbury's exuberant, energetic pictures is a winning match.
—The Boston Globe

Featured/recommended
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

A baby boy is showered with love from his relatives as the clan gathers for a celebration in this exuberant picture book. The baby waits at the window with Mom, not ``doing anything... nothing really,'' when, one by one, family members ring the doorbell and make a grand entrance. Auntie Bibba wants to squeeze the baby, Uncle Didi wants to kiss him, Nannie and Gran-Gran want to eat him and the baby's cousins want to fight him-all because they love him SO much. Once the house is ``full, full, full,'' Dad walks in-and gets a real surprise. Cooke's (When I Grow Bigger) bubbly language works perfectly with her cumulative structure to take full advantage of the excitement and suspense of each new arrival. She also occasionally adopts African American dialect (``He flip-flap him over till he nearly drop him''), which may prove to be a slight stumbling block for some. Vibrant gouache paintings capture all the warmth of this close-knit group and realistic details of their clothes and mannerisms give the characters added life. Oxenbury (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) balances bold full-page portraits with transitional black-and-white spot art, modulating the flow of the joyous proceedings. Ages 3-up. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

PreS-Gr 1-A toddler and his mother are perched on a couch, doing nothing really, when ``DING DONG!'' the doorbell rings, and in comes Auntie Bibba, arms out wide, wanting to squeeze the baby ``SO MUCH!'' After the three of them settle in, Uncle Didi arrives wanting to kiss the baby ``SO MUCH!'' By the end of this cumulative tale, told in a sort of Caribbean patois, the urban dwelling is filled with loving family waiting for the child's father's surprise party to begin. One young cousin expresses his affection for the baby by wanting to ``fight'' him so much, but the illustrations make clear that he is really just rough-housing. Oxenbury's dynamic, exaggerated representations of this exuberant black family are humorous and filled with action. The black-and-white line drawings beneath the large-print text are more successful than the full-page, full-color gouache paintings with which they alternate, as the latter border on caricature. Nonetheless, the rhythmic text and oversized format will make this a fun read-aloud.-Anna DeWind, Milwaukee Public Library

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