Laugh-Out-Loud Baby
With Audio Recording
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From Caldecott Medalist Stephen Gammell and beloved writer Tony Johnston, this joyous picture book with audio celebrates the sound of a baby’s laughter.
The family gathers round to hear the sweet sound of the new baby’s sweet laugh! But just because everyone has gathered doesn’t mean the baby’s ready. When the moment finally comes, the sound makes everyone else laugh too—aunts, uncles, cousins, and even great-grandma. It seems no one can resist the sound of baby’s laugh. And who would want to?
With simple, endearing text, audio, and Stephen Gammell’s unmistakable art, this tribute to the joy a young child’s laughter will quickly become a family favorite.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A baby's inaugural laugh "That small spill of happiness," as Johnston (Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea) felicitously puts it is so infectiously joyful that it makes everyone in the tyke's rural, tumbledown community come running. But laughing on demand is clearly not baby's thing even when visitors try "smiling like pumpkins" and the seemingly surefire "coochy-coo." What will it take to get the giggles going again? Unfortunately, both the question and its answer fall flat. Johnston's rustic lyricism is well matched to Gammell's (Mudkin) luminous mixed-media illustrations, which portray an entire town of quirky personalities (the baby's father sports a top hat and a ponytail, and thrift shop ensembles prevail among his friends and neighbors); there's an undeniable mood of genial comic chaos. But the story feels woolly and unfocused it's one of those books that forces readers to flip the pages backward to keep track of what's happening. Even more critically, the grownups' desire to make the baby laugh one more time never translates into narrative momentum or comic urgency. Ages 4 8.
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