If You Were My Baby: A Wildlife Lullaby (A Simply Nature Book) by Fran Hodgkins

• 01/06/2014
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If You Were My Baby: A Wildlife Lullaby (A Simply Nature Book)
Fran Hodgkins
Dawn Publications (2007)
ISBN 9781584690900
Reviewed by Cayden (age 3.5) and Max (age 19 months) Aures and Mom                               for Reader Views (4/08)

“If You Were My Baby: A Wildlife Lullaby” is a very sweet, calming bedtime story filled with wonderful illustrations of various animal moms and their babies.  The book is part of the “Simply Nature” board book series.

Cayden:  On the page with the bears:  “Their nails are long but that is how they are supposed to be.”

Max:  “Clip! Clip!”

Cayden:  “No Max, bears don’t clip their nails!”

Max:  “Bear!!  Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

Cayden:  “Bears says Rarrrrr, not Arrrrrrrr!  Pirates say Arrrrrrrr!”

Max:  Pointing to the fawn:  “Spots!”

Cayden:  “Right Max, baby deer have spots.”

Cayden:  When the wolves are singing to the stars:  “I think they are singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!’”

Cayden:  “Which ones are the babies on this page?

Parent’s comments:
My children really enjoyed looking at all of the pictures of the animals in the book and once we were finished reading it they went back through and named them again and again.  Being that we used to live in a very wooded area they were familiar with a lot of the animals already and enjoyed seeing them in the book.

The text accompanying the illustrations is unique for a children’s book and full of great lessons.  For instance on the page with the baby skunk the text reads:  “If you were my baby skunk, I would teach you to have the patience to give others fair warning before you act.”

Besides teaching animals and life lessons, “If You Were My Baby: A Wildlife Lullaby” also can serve as a basic counting book due to the varying number of animals, flowers, and other items pictured on each page.  I look forward to reading my children more great books from the “Simply Nature” series!