Fiction - African American, Fiction - General & Miscellaneous, Fiction - Emotions & Behaviors, Fiction - Family Life

So Much!

Name: So Much!
Author: Trish Cooke
ISBN: 9780763640910

by Trish Cooke, Helen Oxenbury

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Overview

All the relatives want to hug and kiss and squeeze and eat the baby right up--because everybody loves the baby SO MUCH! With Helen Oxenbury lending her characteristic warmth and humor to a most exuberant family party, Trish Cook's rhythmic, cumulative story captures the joy of being a baby in a large, extended family. A Child Best Children's Book. Full color.

Relatives arriving in succession give in to their desire to squeeze and kiss and play with the baby.

Synopsis

Mom and baby are home alone when—DING DONG!—Auntie and then Uncle and Nannie and Gran-Gran and the cousins come to visit. And they all want to hug and kiss and squeeze and eat the baby right up—because everybody loves the baby SO MUCH! With Helen Oxenbury lending her characteristic warmth and humor to a most exuberant family party, Trish Cooke's rhythmic, cumulative story captures the joy of being the baby in a large extended family—a baby who knows that he is absolutely, utterly adored.

Publishers Weekly

A baby boy is showered with love from his relatives as the clan gathers for a celebration in this exuberant picture book. The baby waits at the window with Mom, not ``doing anything... nothing really,'' when, one by one, family members ring the doorbell and make a grand entrance. Auntie Bibba wants to squeeze the baby, Uncle Didi wants to kiss him, Nannie and Gran-Gran want to eat him and the baby's cousins want to fight him-all because they love him SO much. Once the house is ``full, full, full,'' Dad walks in-and gets a real surprise. Cooke's (When I Grow Bigger) bubbly language works perfectly with her cumulative structure to take full advantage of the excitement and suspense of each new arrival. She also occasionally adopts African American dialect (``He flip-flap him over till he nearly drop him''), which may prove to be a slight stumbling block for some. Vibrant gouache paintings capture all the warmth of this close-knit group and realistic details of their clothes and mannerisms give the characters added life. Oxenbury (We're Going on a Bear Hunt) balances bold full-page portraits with transitional black-and-white spot art, modulating the flow of the joyous proceedings. Ages 3-up. (Nov.)

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Children's Literature - Deborah Zink Roffino

Company's coming, so throw open the door and prepare for a party. An appealing parade of relatives arrives for dad's birthday, each one making a beeline for the baby. The tot is lifted high in a festive round of roughhousing and raucous welcomes. This cumulative story is an open invitation to join the throng of aunts, uncles, and cousins in this lively, loving family. Exuberance springs from every dynamic picture detailing a family celebration.

Children's Literature - Leila Toledo

Baby is hugged and squeezed and kissed by a variety of family members who come to visit. The warmth and joy that come from loving the baby explode into merry making among the extended family. Children will delight in the loving spirit found in this happy exuberant family.

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde

Take a big breath and plunge into an exuberant read that is filled with the arrival of auntie, uncle, grandmothers, and cousins who hug, squeeze, kiss, sing, play, and surround the baby with adoration. It isn't until the end of the book that you discover that father's birthday is the reason for the get together. By then you'll be swept into the rhythms, repetitions, and big heart of a family that really knows how to make a child feel loved.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1-A toddler and his mother are perched on a couch, doing nothing really, when ``DING DONG!'' the doorbell rings, and in comes Auntie Bibba, arms out wide, wanting to squeeze the baby ``SO MUCH!'' After the three of them settle in, Uncle Didi arrives wanting to kiss the baby ``SO MUCH!'' By the end of this cumulative tale, told in a sort of Caribbean patois, the urban dwelling is filled with loving family waiting for the child's father's surprise party to begin. One young cousin expresses his affection for the baby by wanting to ``fight'' him so much, but the illustrations make clear that he is really just rough-housing. Oxenbury's dynamic, exaggerated representations of this exuberant black family are humorous and filled with action. The black-and-white line drawings beneath the large-print text are more successful than the full-page, full-color gouache paintings with which they alternate, as the latter border on caricature. Nonetheless, the rhythmic text and oversized format will make this a fun read-aloud.-Anna DeWind, Milwaukee Public Library