Behold! A Baby

Behold! A Baby

Written by Stephanie Watson; Illustrated by Joy Ang

Bloomsbury Children's Book, 2015, Ages 5-8

The book Behold! A Baby, is about a father performing an act (like a magic show) who talks about his baby and all the amazing and astounding actions or activities that the baby can do. While the father is talking about the baby, his other son states, “what is the big deal” as well as “I can do that.” The little boy plays a part in the show by acting like he wasn’t impressed, but later into the story you find out that it was just for show and that he actually loves his baby brother. The older brother likes the idea that he will eventually get to teach him all the things he knows how to do. 

The author's writing style is exciting, expressive, and bold. If you were to imagine yourself at a magic show, the magician would be trying to get the audience excited about the tricks. The author makes it expressive by having the older brother playing along with the act and how he is not impressed with the tricks that the littler baby is performing. When in reality, the baby is not doing anything special. Over all, the author’s writing style is fun and enjoyable for children. 

I love the illustrations in this book. There is an illustration on every page, which helps the read understand what’s going on within the story line. On the pages that the father is explaining what the little baby will do next, the page is colorful and bold. While on the page where the older boy is not impressive, it is a lot of white space in the background and the boy is in color. This helps to show readers what is the most important to concentrate on in the book. The use of dark and light colors are very helpful for the illustrations because when you are the performer the light shades are used. On the other hand, when you are watching the performance, the audience is illustrated by being the dark shades. This causes an illusion and play on the eyes for someone to focus their attention where the bright lights are, not the darker colors. 

 I thought this book was very creative. The author used her knowledge of magic shows and transformed it into a book about two brothers and their father. The text and illustrations play hand and hand by allowing the reader to understand the story as a whole. I think that this book would be great for children to read. It’s funny and entertaining, as well for the reader has a sibling of the same age. 

Reviewed by Stephanie Shaw