Who?: A Celebration of Babies: A Board Book

by Robie H. Harris, Natascha Rosenberg (Illustrations)

Author Robie H. Harris and illustrator Natascha Rosenberg’s Who? A Celebration of Babies is a perfect read aloud picture book for young children.

Who’s that?
A BABY!
Sweet Baby!
Nice Baby!
That’s who!

Who? explores the relationships babies form with the people and things they love the most. The text’s repetitive verse and melodic voice will captivate babies and toddlers and draw them into the sounds and images of the book.

Genres: Picture Books, Family, Childrens, Storytime, Fiction, Kids

20 pages, Board Book

First published June 5, 2018

About the author

Robie H. Harris has written many award-winning books for children of all ages, including the definitive Family Library about sexuality: IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL, IT'S SO AMAZING!, and IT'S NOT THE STORK! She lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding preschool concept board book that celebrates babies and their special loved ones including doggie, kitty, and lovey. A comforting read aloud book for babies and toddlers.

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shows babies from different types of families. Cute illustrations!

[Elias Hoffman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very repetitive. Cute penguin stuffy on the "Dada" page though

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

First sentence: Who's that? A baby! Sweet baby! Nice baby! That's who! Who? Who's that? Dada! That's who! Who's that? Baby and Dada! That's who!

Premise/plot: This one is subtitled a CELEBRATION of babies. The book opens with A BABY and closes with BABIES. Whether singular or plural babies are SWEET and NICE. There is a LOT of repetition in this one. (I'm not just talking about the excessive amounts of exclamation points.) This one is all about answering the question WHO? It covers the many WHOs in a baby's life: Mama, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Kitty, Doggie, etc.

My thoughts: I liked it. It isn't the story of one baby in one family. It is the story of babies and families everywhere. A nice diverse offering for all little ones to enjoy.

I definitely liked it.

[Mia Valdez Quellhorst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our who family enjoys this book - I honestly don't mind reading it 3x a day. The words follow a simple pattern and the pictures are bright and engaging while representing diverse families. Ethan know enough words to 'read' the book to me. And ya know what? Because the pattern is accessible, we can read it together; swoon. We read multiple new board books a week but rarely do I increase our personal collection (perks of living a block away from the library). We're getting a copy of this and I'll be sending it to friends as well.

[Brittany Thurman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, yes, yes!! I'm giving this five stars because:
1. Representation!
2. Repetition!
3. See 1 and 2.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

We got this book for our granddaughter who will be 4 months old at Christmas. It seemed like a natural choice to add to her board book collection for the following reasons.

Nice large sized drawings, I love the classic Margaret Wise Brown, Goodnight Moon but for small eyes that aren't focusing just yet it can be a little dark and hard to discern. For that reason the bright colorful drawings are going to be easier on tiny new eyes.

The sing song rhythms are perfect for her parents to read to her during her first months of life and her tiny new attention span. Being short means they will most likely reread over and over helping her develop vocal inflection cues and spend more time bonding in their laps.

Lastly one of the biggest reasons we were drawn to it was the multicultural representation. Something not often present in older children's books. Just another of many reasons we gave this such a high review.

[Erica Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Herpes are more common than blue eyes, but 15 of the 22 characters in this book have blue eyes. Even the Black girl on the cover, even the Asian child and her mom, even the dog and cat, even all four butterflies. I purchased this book hoping that it would reflect the world we live and the beauty of children of all races. Instead these random and illogical blue-eyed characters reinforce white and racist beauty standards. If you buy it any, pick up a Sharpie too so you can make corrections.

[Alison Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet book where the main appeal comes from the delightful illustrations which show a diverse group of people, animals, and things as well as the babies who love them. I'd say the target age is around one. I always appreciate books which portray an inclusive variety of races, religions, and ages. And the earlier children see this diversity the better!

[A Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn't fight it if someone wanted to include this in the classroom's library, but I don't think it shows as much representation as I would've liked or expected. Half of the characters appear to be white. The "gramma" character does wear a headscarf, which is nice to see included.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Repetitive, lyrical - endearing illustrations with culturally diverse faces by illustrator Natascha Rosenberg

[Ruth Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who's that? Babies! Family!

[Alana/MiaTheReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 17-month-old adores this book.

[Luciana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great little board book about babies and their relationships. They talk about parents, grandparents & pets.

A great little board showing the diversity of cultures!

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Babies, parents, grandparents, and even a cousin or animals all make it into this book.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who? is a little call-and-response to all the whos in a baby's life---his dad, his mom, his dog, his grandma, his blanket, filled with lovely repetition and great diversity in the illustrations.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A library pick the toddler was interested in even though an unfamiliar book. Super cute for the baby set. May invest in it for new baby.

[Rosalind Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the grandparents. I did expect there to be more owls though.

[pandemic_reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book I've ever read!

[Freddie D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect for infants first reaching for books, who seem to love gazing at pictures of babies. Love the diverse representation of the illustrations and repetition.

[Emma Refvem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute and simple! I love that lovey gets to be a character

[Reagan Kapasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple rhyme (could do call and response in storytime), diverse representation, cute pictures

[Virginia, Second of Her Name, Mother of Bunnies]

Great for babies and toddlers.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful book for our 9 month old. She appreciates the word repetition of “who?”, while really enjoying the simple but very happy illustrations. Perfect for language acquisition!

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teaches kids different family
members and recognizing them and common baby objects. Repetition of “Who is this?” “Grandma!” “Who is this?” “Baby and grandma!” Good for recognition practice!

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Board book. This book is a simple read for the youngest readers. It follows a nice pattern:
Who?
Who's that?
_____!
That's who!
(next page) Baby and _____! That's who!

This repetition makes it a comforting, predictable read that toddlers can start to "read" from memory. There are also several skin tones represented, in addition to the loved people and things that fill the pages. Not quite as visually strong as Look!: Babies Head to Toe by the same author but the text does have the bonus of the predictable pattern.

[Elizabeth]

I don't love that the opening "Who's that?" is answered with "Sweet baby! Nice baby!" but generally the book works for me.

After the opening spread which has "a baby" on the left facing some adjectives re: baby on the right, the ensuing spreads have a person or animal on the left with the facing page being "baby and X."

The people with baby include a Black Dada, an Asian Mama, and a Gramma in hijab, with the baby generally matching the adult in ethnicity. There's also a white dude Grampa -- with baby twins! -- and a Doggie, a Birdie, a Lovey, and a Kitty mixed in.