There's Going to Be a Baby

by John Burningham, Helen Oxenbury (Illustrator)

Overview

In a first-time creative pairing, two of the world’s most treasured picture book creators offer a truly delightful book for new-siblings-to-be.

When is the new baby coming? What will we call it? What will he do? We don’t really need a baby, do we? With sensitivity and wit, John Burningham follows the swirl of questions in the mind of a young child anticipating a baby sibling with excitement, curiosity, and just a bit of trepidation. In perfect tandem, Helen Oxenbury captures the child’s loving interactions with his mother — along with the fanciful future scenarios he imagines for the new family member he has yet to meet. Combining a warm, timeless story with illustrations both freshly enchanting and wonderfully nostalgic, this gorgeous book has all the hallmarks of a classic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763649074
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/14/2010
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	10.22(w) x 11.28(h) x 0.46(d)
Lexile:	AD480L (what's this?)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

John Burningham (1936-2019) was one of the world’s most recognized and beloved illustrators. His work has received countless awards, including a Boston Globe–Horn Book honor for It’s a Secret! and two Kate Greenaway Medals. Over his fifty-year career, John Burningham wrote and illustrated more than thirty picture books, including Picnic, Motor Miles, and Mouse House. He and his wife, Helen Oxenbury, had three children.

Helen Oxenbury, a winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal among many other awards, has illustrated such Candlewick books as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Big Momma Makes the World, Farmer Duck, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and So Much! She is also the illustrator of Mem Fox's Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes. She lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

Burningham and Oxenbury team for a poignant treatment of a preschooler's ambivalence about a forthcoming new sibling. The dialogue couples Mommy's benign suggestions about the baby's future exploits with her son's far less equivocal, here-and-now replies. She muses, "I wonder if the baby will work here at the zoo one day, looking after the animals." He rejoins (a twinge, one hopes), "Then the baby might get eaten by a tiger." The elegant text type (Polymer) is coolly pale for Mommy's comments, bold-faced for her boy's. The lovely ink drawings are digitally colored in flat, muted hues accented with rich reds. To dignify and celebrate the boy's robust imaginative flights, double-page spreads, each with eight panels reminiscent of old-timey comics, depict the baby painting messily, maneuvering a sailboat or raking leaves in Parks and Rec jammies. The seasons turn, Mommy gets bigger and, finally, Grandad and boy walk down a hospital corridor, gift and flowers in hand. Heavy paper, generous trim, amusing endpapers and, above all, beautifully evoked relationships combine for a winning package. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews