There's Going to Be a Baby - Hardcover

Burningham, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763649074 ISBN 13: 9780763649074

Publisher: Candlewick, 2010

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Burningham and Oxenbury (did you know they’re married?) are two of the finest picture-book writers around, so it’s no surprise this collaboration delights on many levels. They take on a well-trod topic, the new sibling, but their spin is purely their own. It begins with these simple words set alone on a buff-colored page: “There’s going to be a baby.” The facing page shows a young mother leaning against her young son’s bed, while he looks at her with curiosity. Painted in pure, saturated colors that fill the pages, this simple scene leads to more interchanges between mom and son, through the snow, at a restaurant, in a flower-filled garden. The questions are often simple: When is the baby going to come? What will we call the baby? But the mostly matter-of-fact answers lead to wild flights of fancy for the boy. He doesn’t want a messy baby painting pictures. The next two-page spread (like all the imaginary scenes, in blocks on a dot-matrix background) will make readers laugh at the baby’s wild spin at painting. Throughout, this is a mother-and-son-only family (though Grandfather shows up to take the boy to the hospital to see the newborn), and despite the range of today’s families, children may have questions about Dad’s whereabouts. Yet this is a gorgeous book, full of warmth, spirit, and imagination. Soon-to-be siblings will understand the boy’s musings and feel comforted as he shapes his fantasies into the reality to come. Preschool. --Ilene Cooper

About this edition

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0763649074
• ISBN 13: 9780763649074
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Oxenbury Helen