[.ca] Day The Babies Crawled Away (ISBN 039923196X)

Babies Away!:
There is no justice in the world. None at all. Ladies and gentlemen I direct your attention this evening to "The Day the Babies Crawled Away". Now this is a tale told entirely in silhouette. It is accomplished and witty, ending with a touch of sentiment that brings an actual honest-to-goodness tear to the eye. And yet what did author Peggy Rathmann win the Caldecott Award for? For the phenomenally less deserving and trite, "Officer Buckle and Gloria". A fine book, but not even a hair close to the brilliance of this, her latest text. The book begins in the early morning. A fair is being set up next to a group of houses. The narration speaks to the reader. "Remember the day The babies crawled away?" And later... "Remember the way You tried to save the day?" So we follow our protagonist, a boy in a fireman's helmet as he frantically follows five fast moving babies. The boy follows them from the woods, to the swamps, into caves and on ledges. The babies find themselves in perilous situations, and the intrepid young boy must find a way to save them all and get them back home safe and sound. When he returns to the fairgrounds, babies in tow, the grown-ups cheer him soundly. That night, boy and babies fall asleep in their parents' arms after a long and exhausting day. It sounds cutesy, no question, and it isn't. Not in the least. First of all, technically it's remarkably adept. The silhouettes are so detailed and delicate that you find yourself discovering all sorts of tiny details on every page. Is that Officer Buckle and Gloria on the title page? Is the trophy given to the boy at the end topped with a pie? And how did Rathmann draw an exploding water balloon so well in silhouette? Looking at the babies, you can see that each one is differently drawn. There's the bonnet baby, the baby with one curl, the cornrows baby, the dredlocks baby, and the smallest baby of all that spends almost all of this book upside down. Rathmann uses the silhouette technique to her own advantage at critical times. When the babies collapse as a sleepy pile on top of their boy rescuer, the viewer can only make out a hand here, a heel there, and a wild assortment of perching birds, butterflies, and frogs. As for the text, it really does give credit where credit is due. The boy has saved the babies and as a reward we are shown a scene that touched me deeply. The boy sits on his mother's lap in the fading evening light. His fireman's hatted head is tipped gently towards his mama who is kissing him sweetly. In her hair, a butterly perches and the book says, "You told me your story, I brewed you some tea, then you fell fast asleep in a small pile on me" It's enough to break your heart. And I haven't even gushed to you about the shifting colors of the day from early morning to the bright light of noon, and eventually the cool colors of twilight. For a book that deals up a healthy heaping of black, this is one of the most colorful (and lovely) picture books out there today. There's something about a story in which a toddler can be the ultimate hero that appeals deeply to children. The adults (incapacitated by a pie-eating contest) are useless here and it is up to a small boy to save the day. Rathmann had always struck me as the poor man's Steven Kellogg until now. With "The Day the Babies Crawled Away", I think she's really come into her own. It is perhaps the most charming toddler empowerment book I have ever seen. More importantly, it is simultaneously witty and beautiful. With so few books managing to be either one or the other, we should be careful to praise the few (like this one) that are both.

The Book I Want to Read Every Night:
I have boy/girl twin 2 year olds and they each go through their phases of what their favorite book is. This book has been the most enduring favorite for them and me. It's nice to have a children's book that I never get tired of reading each day. It's visually stunning with only the sky having beautiful colors of morning, noon and twilight. The silhouette effect allows for an increase in imagination. I thought the subject matter would be too dark (missing children) but it's very clever with image subplots that are carried throughout the story (look for the baby that's always upside-down). I love Peggy Rathmann's books and this is my very favorite!

Good Bedtime Story:
My kids are 1 and 2 1/2 and both love this story. My 1 year old daughter brings this book to me several times a day, she loves it so much. The illustrations are so beautiful. I like the shadows which leave a little more to the imagination. I'm certainly glad we bought it.

Five stars for "Babies Away"!!:
I thought this book looked a little bit different. We have many, many books at our house, and something a little different sounded nice. My two year-old LOVES it. She calls it "Babies Away", and asks for it over and over. I think it is the rhyming that she likes most, and when my 7 year-old daughter reads it to her, she will read most of the page, and let my two year old yell out the last word, which of course she remembers since we read it so often..........LOL We also like the way the pictures are done. My girls don't seem to have a problem with the fact that you don't see much detail...........as a matter of fact, I think it leaves more to the imagination. This book gets a big thumbs up from me, as well as from my two year old............and I guess I should add that my 7 year-old really enjoys reading it to her little sister(:

6 Thumbs up!:
This is a book that us adults will enjoy reading as much as our children will. It's beautifully illustrated with everything done in silhouette. The only color in the illustrations is the sky which changes a bit on every page as the sun is setting. I have very squirmy 2 year old twin boys and this is one of the only books they will sit still for. We give it 6 thumbs up!