Edwin Speaks Up

by April Stevens, Sophie Blackall (Illustrator)

Here's a book that will get the whole family laughing, illustrated by the Caldecott Medal winner Sophie Blackall. When a large family of ferrets and their precocious baby take a chaotic trip to the supermarket, mom can't keep track of the groceries, the shopping cart . . . or even the kids! Baby Edwin tries to help, but everyone thinks he's just babbling. Little do they know that he really has all the answers. Full of fun-to-say nonsense words this is a perfect storytime book and a great read-aloud.

Genres: Picture Books, Humor, Childrens, Family, Fiction, 2nd Grade, Storytime

40 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2011

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure the whole point of this story, nor am I sure what Edwin is.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I giggled all the way through this book. Poor Edwin! No one can understand his baby talk except the reader, who is in no position to help him out.

[Katharina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I curse the day my three year old chose this book from the library! He wants to read it over and over and it is frankly the worst written book I've ever read! Mrs Finnemore? Fineson's Fine Groceries? Finney? Fiona? Are you for real, guys? It's not fun, it's clunky and annoying. The story itself is not actually that bad, it's the writing that sucks. and the illustrations? Ferrets, huh? I was not aware of that. In fact I hadn't yet determined what the animals in the story were, despite having been subjected to reading this book repeatedly for weeks on end. I got so sick of it I just made up a whole new narrative, I couldn't even attempt to take this one on again! I don't know which editor allowed this pile of rubbish to slip through but yeah, whoever you are, I hope you consider an alternative career as clearly you haven't got the whole editing thing down yet...

[Relyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book because I love the work of the illustrator, Sophie Blackall. However, I didn't enjoy it. The story line just didn't grab me. I do think, though, that young children would really enjoy it for read aloud. The situations (grocery shopping, etc.) are familiar and I think they would love hearing a parent do Edwin talking. I'm not sure they would catch the humor on their own, though. The joke is that Edwin is talking but his mother is too distracted to understand him and thinks he's only babbling. If Sloane were about three, I think we might have loved this one.

[Angie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm. I am not sure what to say about this book.


The idea is funny. Poor little misunderstood baby who if people who just LISTEN to him? He knows what's going on!


But ... all the bickering between the other siblings was more than a little annoying. I don't love this one.

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute illustrations (love me some Sophie Blackall) and the concept of a babbling baby as the wisest member of the family, but the execution was a little annoying with all the bickering siblings and the air-head mom. I wasn't mad at it or anything, but I don't enjoy kids who are kind of pieces of doo doo and offer nothing interesting as a trade-off to their horrid, once-dimensional personality. At least be smart, you know?

[Kinnley Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a reading class I took in college I learned that not all children's books were made for children but for nostoliac adults. I think Edwin Speaks Up is a book that was made for kids but holds much more meaning to older readers. With a scatterbrain mother and four other rowdy siblings, baby Edwin makes sure his voice is heard, even if you cannot understand what he is saying. As the baby of my family, I can attest to this family dynamic. A wonderful book with beautiful illistations!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Edwin can't quite speak real words yet, but he can babble. That's what the book is basically about. Edwin's mother and his siblings go on a shopping trip and the book follows the trip, but mostly the babbles of Edwin. Curious.

[Sean Harding · Rating 2 out of 5]

April Showers #1
Other proposed titles:
Edwin whinges
Edwin carries on like a pork chop
Edwin is a flipping annoying cove
And the proposed sequel
Edwin shuts up after he gets a smack in the chops!

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny!

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one understands baby Edwin's babble. If they'd really pay attention they'd see he's trying to tell them important and helpful things. Cute story with sweet illustrations.

[Bonn]

Baby really learning to talk😁

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reader knows, even though his family can't figure out, what Edwin is trying to say.

[skcocnaH · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have 5 kids, so I can tell you that’s not an excuse for how neglectful this mother is.

[superawesomekt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like baby talk, but of course most kids do. Edwin tries to help his mom and his babbling is actually quite cute.. older kids might even be able to crack Edwin's code ;-)

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of a family going to the store.

[Gabby Maenner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a baby who is babbling, but no one seems to listen to what he is saying. His mother goes to the grocery store to get groceries, but also sugar for his birthday cake. All his siblings, and his mother forget to get the sugar and only Edwin remembers it. Throughout the book Edwin is saying nonsense words along with meaningful words that would really help his mother out if only she was hearing what he was saying. A silly misunderstanding for a book, but an important message of listening to young children because what they say is so valuable and often taken for granted because of their age.
Major themes of this book are undervaluing our youth, and miscommunication.
This book reminds me of when my brothers talk louder than me and my parents don't hear what I said. Five minutes later someone will say what I had just said and it can be so frustrating not being heard. I can relate to how little Edwin must have felt, here he is trying to be helpful and no one can hear/understand what he is trying to say.
I would recommend this book be discussed with the notion of listening to younger kids and taking what they have to say to heart. It might not always be the wisest of words, but everyone wants to be heard and I think a lot of times kids get overlooked because we assume they don't know what they are talking about. Everyone looks to our elders for advice, but kids can be just as wise!

[babyhippoface · Rating 2 out of 5]

Problems I had with this book:

1] That's a ferret?? If you had given me 30 guesses, I would never have come up with "ferret". The mother looks weasley, but the round-headed kids all look like vampire lemurs or something.

2] This is one supremely distracted mother and 4 kiddos who are in serious need of some spankings. I was so annoyed by the scatterbrained mother allowing her children to do basically whatever they felt like doing in the grocery store that I couldn't enjoy the book.

3] Several of Edwin's "babblings" contain bathroom words. Don't you try to convince yourself that kids won't notice. Because they will. Then you'll have to stop reading and wait for them to quit giggling over the fact that this baby thing just said "poopy". I'm not completely against bathroom humor, I just was annoyed by the fact that "poop" and "weewee" showed up so often in this toddler's vocabulary.

4] It's a little wordy for a picture book.

5] The story just didn't grab me. Not even a little.

Sorry, it just doesn't work for me.

[Liz Hammet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edwin Speaks Up would be a great read aloud for young children ages 3 through 6. The baby of the family, Edwin, gibbers a lot throughout the story. There is a lot of dialogue between the family members. The mom talks about what she needs to do and the older children are fighting back and forth in the grocery store, the main setting of the story. Edwin, the baby, is frustrated because he can't make out real words and knows that the mom needs sugar at the store but forgets it. He is trying to communicate to the mom, but instead crawls and gets the sugar himself. At the end of the story the mom talks about how Edwin would be talking soon, which would've been nice for Edwin to already have been talking. The images are not the best, but they help to explain what is going on through the story. I thought this book was okay, but I thought it would've been a good read aloud for younger students who have just recently come out of the gibbering stage, because they could relate to that certain type of communication.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edwin, the littlest ferret in the family, speaks (mostly) in nonsense words. When his family takes a trip to the grocery story, Edwin does his best to make sure they take care of all of their shopping needs.

Recommended for ages 4 - 6, this book is a bit silly. Be aware that Edwin's nonsense talk includes some bathroom humor (poop, weewee). It sort of reminded me of Mo Willem's Trixie and her Aggle Flaggle Klabble. I wouldn't do this story as a a whole lesson but it might be a nice follow up to a lesson on Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale.

[Courtenay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute concept. Having met Ms. Blackall at a writing conference I was eager to see what projects she's been up to. I think I had more fun reading the reviews than the book itself. And I didn't get that these were ferrets (greyhounds, or possums, maybe?) until I read the book jacket "about Sophie Blackall" and spotted the word "ferret." Aha. Funny that parents reviewing this didn't get that the baby was answering questions, that seemed obvious in the way the printing had certain words in all caps. Have to rate this one average. Gives me hope when I see mixed reviews like this one that my OWN stories will make it...

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Sophie Blackhall's illustrations and the story is fun, but lacks umph. Maybe kids who feel misunderstood will relate to Edwin's attempts to convey what the busy mother in this book misses, but the rest of us feel it's a little flat. Try it as a read-aloud and see if the dialog goes over, or share it with a confident picture book reader. In any case, let the little ones decide on this one...

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, I will it admit that it took me an EMBARRASSINGLY long time to figure out that Edwin was actually saying real words amongst his gibberish and that further, the real words were actually correct answers to his mother's questions. For kids who are quicker than I am this might be fun, and they might also have fun remarking on the wild behavior of the children and the cluelessness of the mother, but this just wasn't my book.

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edwin in the youngest of five children in the ferret family and he's experimenting with the sounds he can make. His mother and siblings are going to the store and they need to remember to buy sugar for Edwin's birthday cake. Edwin tries to help out with suggestions, but no one is listening (or understanding). In the end, he takes matters into his own paws.

Delightful illustrations - good for a laugh!

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

My boys (ages 4 & 8) really liked this book and laughed every time Edwin "talked". You do have to read it in a quirky voice to get the full effect. My boys also thought it was funny how the kids fought, maybe because they could relate to it!

An example of Edwin's language, "Gloo poop SHOE noogie froo KEY" means mom's car keys are in a shoe on the hall table

[Stephanie Sapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! As a mother of two young children, I dread trips to the grocery store. I can totally relate to the mother's scatter-brain though I have never had all of her extreme issues. I wasn't sure what type of animals they were but it didn't matter for the story line. This is a great read-aloud.

[Beth Kakuma-Depew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the bright retro patterns mixed-into clothes and objects. I love also the animal cast - strange, odd and interesting. But does the quietness of Blackall's illustrations fit the scatter-brained mother and brood? Not sure...will have to test it on my boys.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cracked me up because my one year old grandson communicates much the same way as Edwin. The harried mother and her five children take a chaotic trip to the store. Readers who don't go too fast will realize that Edwin, who seems to babble nonsense, actually has all the answers.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like where the author was going with this - the little baby in the family trying to communicate, and having readers try to understand the baby speak in the same way that its family members needed to - but I just thought the story itself was so-so.

Cute artwork though...

[Sari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I love Sophie Blackall's illustrations. It's a cute story about baby Edwin, who tries to tell his family what's going on but no one will listen because, well, he's just a baby. Very cute pictures and the story moves along well. My 4 year old enjoys this too.