I absolutely adore Marla Frazee’s artwork, and Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers and illustrated by Marla Frazee (Harcourt, 2001) had the double bonus of being about babies, a subject I love these days since my newborn daughter has so recently joined our family. In Frazee’s wonderful style and Susan Meyers’ special text, we follow babies (in general) from newbornhood to their first birthdays, from tiny sleeping innocence to mischievous crawling.
Each page begins with “Every day, everywhere babies ….” and then we learn something babies do. I like the rhyming of the text. It does not feel overdone, but it makes for a wonderful read-aloud. Further, I loved how Frazee’s illustrations of babies enhanced Meyers’s descriptions. My favorite page is this one:
Every day, everywhere, babies are carried –
in backpacks, in front packs, in slings, and in strollers,
in car seats, and bike seats, and on Daddy’s shoulders.
That page’s illustration captures a street scene with so many families and babies that I find myself lingering over the page, looking at the interesting details of each baby and his or her carrier. Most pages are like this in the details. Everywhere Babies is perfect for the family with a new baby – or for any family that loves to reminisce on the process of growing up!
(I keep trying to tell my baby that she needs to slow down already! These first five weeks have gone far too quickly!)
