A Ride on Mother's Back: A Day of Baby Carrying around the World

by Emery Bernhard, Durga Yael Bernhard (Illustrator)

Through a steamy rain forest in Brazil, along a river in Papua New Guinea, across a frozen inlet in the arctic, this book takes young children on a far-reaching journey to discover how babies worldwide are carried and what they see from their unique vantage points. “This is an exquisite book, for the detailed, folk-art style gouache illustrations, its overall design, and the wealth of information it includes.”-- Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Picture Books, Cultural, Childrens, Family, Nonfiction

40 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a lovely book, visually, but with a disturbing way of approaching people who are not of European
heritage. Our staff discussed this book and saw that all the mothers in the book are of color, are laborers and the one white person is not even
'wearing' her baby and is certainly not working. The person wearing the baby, in fact, is a father in a photograph which struck me as
both very exclusive of women of color, and elitist in its portrayal of women of color and of North American women.
The author takes a very typical and unfortunately oft repeated look at these 'others'
by using the tourist approach. Let's go visit these people in far off lands who don't live as we do! Ok, now we know them.
Then let's go home to our safe place where we don't see them anymore, and where white women don't work.
There are Thai women in the U.S., there are Peruvian men in the U.S.
Are books about wearing babies so rare that this is the only one we can cherish?
Kudos for addressing slings, carriers and cuddlers. I would only hope that the authors can move
beyond to an inclusive book on the subject!

[Miriam Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book with beautiful illustrations. It shows how babies around the world are carried by thier mothers. Children will learn about new cultures and will be impressed by the forms moms carry their babies around.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

my boys were carried for a long time and loved looking at these pictures of kids just like them!
such a lovely book

[Heidi Indahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an EXCELLENT cross-cultural book on baby wearing and family life around the world. Also includes positive nursing images.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures. We liked learning about how other cultures keep their children close.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the idea of showing baby carrying in a picture book but this one isn't very inclusive... The American mother isn't even baby wearing. Pretty disappointed.

[Feralucce Savage · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, illustrated in a sort of brightly colored impressionist style, is an early foray into teaching little children about other cultures. It is long for a picture book, but still a picture book, so it does not try to cover the myriad classes within each culture. It focuses on a sort of "mothers' love is universal, as are hands-free baby carriers, isn't that neat?" message instead. It's...fine.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Guatemala to Bali, from the heat of the Sahara to the Andes Mountains, this book discovers how mothers, sisters, grandfathers and fathers carry their children with them as they do their daily work.

Includes a description of each of the cultures discussed in the back of the book.

[Eloisa Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful big pictures with lots of things to see in them, more important than the text for a baby, my son loves asking for the lives of the babies in this book

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love learning about baby wearing across the world, but the pictures felt pretty stereotypical, especially when compared to the ones of Western parents.

[Sarah Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading a list of picture books this summer, looking for ones to include in my junior high classroom library.

What I am looking for in the text, with teen readers in mind, is some dialogue, sentence variety, topic-specific vocabulary, and an idea or issue that will prompt teen readers to do deeper inquiry into that idea. I'd like the idea to promote diversity, as in including diverse voices and perspectives with a historical, environmental, social, and even global context.

The artwork is also important. I am looking for diverse faces and settings with images that teen readers can "read."

This book has it all. Stunning artwork that invites readers to wander around the work in a safe way, precious way (babies) and will prompt further inquiry into the lives of these babies as they grow up in different settings and world contexts.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that this book shows children all over the world being held close to their mother or other family member. I also like that this book includes nursing pictures. The drawings are very nice, too.

[Turrean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendid pictures to celebrate a common experience of young children all over the world. I had to cut short reading the text sometimes with younger students, though they loved discussing what they saw in the pictures.

[Nahuatl P Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lindo libro que ilustra como los niños son porteados (cargados tradicionalmente) alrededor del mundo.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I can think about when I read this is what type(s) of baby sling to buy.