Hello Baby! Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: Hello Baby!
Author: Mem Fox
Illustrator: Steve Jenkins
Genre: children’s picture book, toddler-Kindergarten (my estimate)
Publication: Simon & Schuster May 9, 2009
Format: hardcover book (not a board book)
ISBN: 978-1416985136
Full Retail Price: $16.99

This picture book is meant to be read aloud to young children. With simple rhyming text perfect for toddlers and preschoolers, Mem Fox asks the child if they are various wild creatures ranging from safari animals. The creatures are both land dwellers and birds, and span the globe from habitats as diverse as jungles to African savanna to North American woodlands.

(With apologies to Mem Fox's prose), the main attraction of this book for me and my children is the artwork of Steve Jenkins (as my children are too old for this type of story but they still appreciate the intricate collaged illustrations).

In this latest work of Jenkin’s, his artistic talents shine brighter than in his past books. (I have just compared this new book side by side with Jenkins’ ANIMALS IN FLIGHT and LOOKING DOWN). In HELLO BABY!, Jenkins’ use of interesting textured handmade papers for collage has achieved new highs. Jenkin’s has an amazing ability to observe a creature and to replicate it realistically using colored and textured papers to capture qualities of skin, fur or feather and to show accurate tones and shadows by careful selection, cutting or tearing of amazing handmade papers. The lion cub’s soft and fuzzy fur, the hippo’s folds of skin, and everything on his owl are particularly stunning. However the most impressive are the eyes of all of his creatures, which are so realistic that they look like a photograph and appear to be three dimensional. I count nine layers of paper collage on some of the eyes, simply stunning! These illustrations have the WOW factor.

The illustrations on the cover show what Jenkin’s illustrations look like but the larger sized illustrations in this 10.5 x 10.5 inch picture book enhance their enjoyment as some of the detail is lost in the small scale reproductions.

Due to the text of author Mem Fox being so simple this truly is just right for toddlers and perhaps preschoolers. However the illustrations are so fantastic that preschoolers and early elementary grade students would enjoy them more than the story itself. Primary school students learning about collage in an art class as well as art students could benefit from viewing this art by Steve Jenkins. As an adult who has an appreciation for collage art and paper arts I am captivated and inspired by the artwork of Steve Jenkins as well.

I can imagine this book being read to a child over and over. This is a sweet, high quality children’s picture book which is perfect for gift-giving for parents to read aloud to their children. It would also be good to use for read alouds with groups of children such as in children’s library programs, daycares, preschools and Kindergarten classrooms.

I rate this book 5 stars = “I Love It”.



Disclosure: I received a pre-publication review copy of this book from the Amazon Vine product review program.

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