Synopsis
Look at baby—today he is not laughing. In fact, he’s so grumpy there’s not even the ghost of a grin lighting up his face. Just what will it take to get this glaring little one to giggle? Will his mother’s tickle on the tummy work? Or when daddy makes him fly through the sky? What about all the dog’s special tricks? NO! But maybe big brother has the right answer….With colorful illustrations, a bouncy, jovial text, and a really irresistible infant in the middle of a meltdown, Ha Ha, Baby shows just how far a family has to go to transform a scowl into a bright, happy smile.
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 1- "Today, our baby is not laughing," begins this slight story. Ma, Pa, Grandma, Grandpa, the dog, and the cat try, but none of them can make the child smile. Suddenly, "I came in." Predictably, "I" is an older sibling, the one who makes the baby laugh. The childlike pastel-outlined mixed-media illustrations feature a cast of characters with round heads, large round eyes, and shaggy hair. The women sport tiny, brightly colored bowlike lips, while the men have lines for mouths. Although the art is appealing enough, with plenty of white space and soft-edged characters, the seemingly random decision to dress Grandma as a fairy and Grandpa as a pirate is a bit strange. The text reads fairly smoothly, although some children may find the overuse of larger type for emphasis somewhat off-putting. Ultimately, the plot is so slight as to be almost nonexistent, the sudden change in point of view is jarring, and the story has been done many times before. For more successful treatments of ways to make a fussy baby smile, go with Phyllis Root's What Baby Wants (Candlewick, 1998), Frieda Wishinsky's Oonga Boonga (Dutton, 1999), or Cressida Cowell's What Shall We Do with the Boo-Hoo Baby? (Scholastic, 2000).-Amy Lilien-Harper, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT