The Baby Goes Beep RETURNS!
My son and I spent our early morning hours today in the land of misfit books.
There were three books that had been long awaiting repairs, including--Baby Talk: A Book of First Words and The Baby Goes Beep by Rebecca O’Connell with illustrations by Ken Wilson-Max (Roaring Brook Press, 2003).
What happens at our house is when a page gets ripped out, or in half, or in fourths, or in…(hopefully by then I’m back in the room), I gather the pieces and file them away in the “ripped pages” bin.
Then, for days, sometimes even weeks, depending on how critical the page was to comprehending the story, when my daughter or son chooses the misfit book to read, we get to the ripped page and my daughter asks:
“Mommy! This book is ripped! Can you fix it?”
And my son yells:
“Uh-oh!”
Finally, a day comes, (such as today), when we sit down with our misfit books and fix them.
Now that The Baby Goes Beep is ship shape I’d love to write about it.
I found this book on the same CCBC best books for baby list I’ve mentioned in earlier posts. When I ordered The Baby Goes Beep in 2010 I could only find a used copy, and the one that showed up had lived a previous life at the San Diego County Library.
“Oh no! Did you rip a library book!?” a friend once asked.
The Baby Goes Beep got ripped because it got read, a lot.
On the jacket flap there is a quote from the author: “‘In eleven years as a librarian, I’ve led more than 2,000 story times. The rhythm and pacing of a read-aloud got into my head and came out as The Baby Goes Beep.'”
The rhythm goes like this: “The baby goes Beep [new page] The baby goes Beep Beep [new page] The baby goes Beep Beep Beep Beep.” The baby is at home with his mom and dad, in the first picture beeping a toy steering wheel horn (we beep it, too). Then the baby beeps his dad’s nose (so I beep my son’s and he tries to beep mine).
After beeping comes booming. “The baby goes Boom The baby goes Boom Boom [new page] The baby goes Boom Boom Boom Boom.” He goes “la” with a picture of a cat that both of my kids adore. “Calli!” my son shouts.
The baby goes “flip,” “yum,” and “splash,” both in a bowl of food and, in my son’s favorite picture, the tub. My son slams his hand down on this page. Perhaps if he does it hard enough, water will come splashing out.
Finally the baby goes “smooch” (for us this is still more of a slobber) and “shhh.”
The rhythm and pacing are flawless. You can’t help but bounce a little bit while you read this book. Bounce, and be happy, and well, beep!
After we got it all taped up and read, what did my son say, “Unh!” Which translates to a PBH rating of: “Read it Again, Mommy!”
P.S. to my niece A.A.J.: I know you are a big fan of Baby Talk, so be checking your mailbox for your own copy of The Baby Goes Beep. If you love one you are going to love the other.
P.P.S. I am sending my niece a board book version because it appears to be the only edition of The Baby Goes Beep now available?
And now that our books are repaired I can update some missing information from a previous post:
Baby Talk: A Book of First Words and Phrases by Judy Hindley with illustrations by Brita Granstrom was published by Candlewick in 2006.
Picture Book House 
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