If a children's book has won a major award that is judged by children, that's a sure sign that its target audience will love it. Such is the case with Simon James's 'Baby Brains', the overall winner of the Red House Children's Book Award in 2004. Subtitled 'The smartest baby in the whole world', the book's front cover shows a baby in a space suit space-walking against a bright blue sky speckled with silver stars and yellow dots. He's smiling inside his huge space helmet, and we know that he is no ordinary baby.
Turning through to the frontispiece, little Baby Brains is lying on the floor in his nappy, sucking a dummy, but there is an open book in front of him and two more to one side. They don't look like picture books, either – there are plenty of pages and plenty of text. This baby can read.
The story starts when Mrs Brains is several months pregnant, and she and her husband are doing everything they can think of to ensure that their baby will be a clever one: they turn the volume up when the television news is on, and Mrs Brains plays music and languages to her baby through headphones as well as reading to him before she goes to sleep at night.
Mrs Brains gives birth to a boy which she and her husband call Baby Brains. On their first night home, Mrs Brains lays him in his cot and tells him to sleep tight – it seems he does, too, as she is not woken by him during the night. What a lucky mum. The next morning, however, Mrs Brains is in for a shock when she finds Baby Brains sitting on the sofa, reading the newspaper. That afternoon he helps his father mend the car, and then announces that he would like to attend school the following day. Having amazed the children there, Baby Brains goes on to study medicine at university. It's only two weeks until he is working as a doctor at a hospital. Not long after that, he is invited to take part in a space mission.
Will Baby Brains continue to go from strength to strength, or will he suddenly feel that he wants to be an ordinary baby doing normal baby things, like being tickled and going out in his pram? Will Mr and Mrs Brains feel that they went too far in their quest for a clever baby and long just to bath and cuddle Baby Brains?
This is obviously a story that will delight children and no doubt amuse the adults that read it to them. It's very imaginative and full of humour. Adults will probably have a good chuckle at the lengths to which prospective parents will go to try to produce brainy offspring. Children will love the idea of a baby mending a car or going up into space.
Simon James has filled his story with colourful illustrations, perhaps slightly reminiscent of the style of Quentin Blake. Sometimes they almost fill the page, whereas others are smaller and interspersed with short paragraphs of text.
All the text is set against a white background and is large enough for easy reading. There are never more than four or five sentences to a page, sometimes less, so very young listeners will not get bored and be anxious to turn the page. Because there is such a good balance of text and illustrations, this could be a suitable book for young independent readers who are gaining confidence. They will not be put off by long paragraphs but will be encouraged by visual clues. There are a few difficult words such as 'languages', 'photographers' or 'headphones', but on the whole a five- or six-year-old could get a great deal of enjoyment from tackling this story.
I borrowed the paperback edition from the library and found a page of stickers (intact) at the end of the book. There are nine in all, depicting Baby Brains undertaking various activities such as talking on the phone, sitting at a laptop, or space walking. Each has a slogan, ranging from “I want my Mummy' through 'I love school' to 'stupendous'. I suspect they help to sell the book.
I do definitely recommend this as both as an entertaining read-aloud book for children aged three to five, and as a story for young independent readers. Although I wouldn't choose it as my favourite picture book, I can see the attraction for children imagining a baby who can turn his hand to almost anything that takes his fancy.
The only other book by Simon James that I am familiar with is 'Leon and Bob', a Smarties Book Prize Silver Award Winner which I enjoyed immensely. Amongst his other titles is 'Days Like This', which was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. There is apparently a sequel to 'Baby Brains' entitled 'Baby Brains Superstar', so I must keep an eye out for that.
Baby Brains
by Simon James
Walker Books, 2005
Paperback, 32 pages
ISBN 1844285227
Price £5.99 (Amazon £4.49)
No comments:
Post a Comment