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Summary
Summary
When is the baby coming? What will we call it? And what will the baby do? As the arrival of a new sibling draws nearer, the questions that stream through a young child's mind are followed with sensitivity and humour in this guide to welcoming a little brother or sister.
Author Notes
John Burningham was born in Farnham, United Kingdom on April 27, 1936. After two and a half years of non-military service as a conscientious objector, he graduated from Central School of Art with distinction in 1959. Before becoming a children's author and illustrator, he made puppets for Yoram Gross's animation film Joseph the Dreamer and was commissioned to produce a number of posters for London Transport.
Burningham's first picture book, Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers, was published in 1963 and won the Kate Greenaway Medal. His other books included Humbert, Avocado Baby, Oi! Get Off Our Train, Courtney, Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present, Come Away from the Water, Shirley, England, Cloudland, France, and There's Going to Be a Baby written with his wife and fellow illustrator Helen Oxenbury. He also illustrated Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1964 and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows in 1983. He received the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1970 for Mr. Gumpy's Outing, the Kurt Maschler award in 1984 for Granpa, and the Booktrust lifetime achievement award in 2018 with Oxenbury. Burningham died on January 4, 2019 at the age of 82.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
On the heels of the pairing of Mem Fox and Oxenbury in Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, here's another dream-come-true matchup: Oxenbury and her husband. A little boy has learned that a sibling is on the way; as the seasons change and the mother's tummy expands, she and the boy engage in a fanciful dialogue on the subject of "What will the baby do?" It's an approach that could easily turn twee, but Burningham (It's a Secret!) makes it feel like an authentic portrayal of both an expectant mother's reveries and a firstborn's vacillating emotions. When the mother suggests that the baby could work at the zoo, the boy mischievously suggests that a tiger might eat the new arrival. Wordless intervening spreads picture the baby trying out the various career paths discussed-in this case, washing and feeding various animals. The handsome, clear-lined images may seem retro at first, but the crispness acts as a containing presence for displacement fears and a source of narrative momentum-all the while allowing Oxenbury to exercise the full power of her visual magic. Ages 2-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
A young boy awaits the birth of his sibling and imagines possible futures for the baby. Burningham's text has an ambiguous relationship with the pictures and the pacing is awkward, but Oxenbury's beautiful illustrations convey the warmth of the relationship between mother and child. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Burningham and Oxenbury (did you know they're married?) are two of the finest picture-book writers around, so it's no surprise this collaboration delights on many levels. They take on a well-trod topic, the new sibling, but their spin is purely their own. It begins with these simple words set alone on a buff-colored page: There's going to be a baby. The facing page shows a young mother leaning against her young son's bed, while he looks at her with curiosity. Painted in pure, saturated colors that fill the pages, this simple scene leads to more interchanges between mom and son, through the snow, at a restaurant, in a flower-filled garden. The questions are often simple: When is the baby going to come? What will we call the baby? But the mostly matter-of-fact answers lead to wild flights of fancy for the boy. He doesn't want a messy baby painting pictures. The next two-page spread (like all the imaginary scenes, in blocks on a dot-matrix background) will make readers laugh at the baby's wild spin at painting. Throughout, this is a mother-and-son-only family (though Grandfather shows up to take the boy to the hospital to see the newborn), and despite the range of today's families, children may have questions about Dad's whereabouts. Yet this is a gorgeous book, full of warmth, spirit, and imagination. Soon-to-be siblings will understand the boy's musings and feel comforted as he shapes his fantasies into the reality to come.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-A wonderful collaboration by the renowned husband-and-wife team. As the winter snows arrive, a mother tells her young son that a new baby is on the way. "'When is the baby going to come?' he asks. His mom answers 'The baby will arrive when it's ready, in the fall, when the leaves are turning brown and falling.'" The remaining panels portray the conversations they have over the next several months as they anticipate the birth. The boy's emotions run from some initial anxiety ("'It will make a mess everywhere'") to realizing that he will perhaps have a new playmate to wondering if a new baby is really necessary. The illustrations alternate between mother-and-son talks at the park, the bank, the zoo, etc., with the youngster's fanciful imaginings of the baby at work and play. The artwork, done in ink with digital colorization, is classic Oxenbury and has a slightly retro feel in layout and palette. It is both sweet and comical at the same time. Overall, this lovely, oversize volume belongs in every new-baby collection.-Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Burningham and Oxenbury team for a poignant treatment of a preschooler's ambivalence about a forthcoming new sibling. The dialogue couples Mommy's benign suggestions about the baby's future exploits with her son's far less equivocal, here-and-now replies. She muses, "I wonder if the baby will work here at the zoo one day, looking after the animals." He rejoins (a twinge, one hopes), "Then the baby might get eaten by a tiger." The elegant text type (Polymer) is coolly pale for Mommy's comments, bold-faced for her boy's. The lovely ink drawings are digitally colored in flat, muted hues accented with rich reds. To dignify and celebrate the boy's robust imaginative flights, double-page spreads, each with eight panels reminiscent of old-timey comics, depict the baby painting messily, maneuvering a sailboat or raking leaves in Parks and Rec jammies. The seasons turn, Mommy gets bigger and, finally, Grandad and boy walk down a hospital corridor, gift and flowers in hand. Heavy paper, generous trim, amusing endpapers and, above all, beautifully evoked relationships combine for a winning package. (Picture book. 2-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
