I Am a Big Brother
by Caroline Jayne Church
DETAILS:
Publisher: Cartwheel Books
Publication Date: January 27, 2015
Format: Hardover
Length: 24 pg.
Read Date: January 27, 2025
What’s I Am a Big Brother About?
This book begins with the lines
Our new baby arrived today.
I’m a big brother now, horray!
Our narrator used to be a baby, but he’s bigger now. As a big brother, there are things he can do to help with the new baby like getting a clean diaper, throwing a dirty one away, helping with baths, singing lullabies, and so on (many of these things suggest this book doesn’t all take place on the first day).
He even talks about plans for the future, like playing together. Because he’s
a big brother forever!
Let’s Talk about the Art for a Minute
It is full of cuteness. Both the big brother and his young sibling are cherubic, smiling, and probably too good to be true (we don’t get to see Big Brother deal with teething or won’t-go-to-sleep baby). Church’s illustrations are exactly what you envision when you think of Picture Books, really.
How is it to Read Aloud?
It’s fine. There’s no challenging rhythm or silly rhymes. Just short, declarative sentences that model how the readers (or those being read to) should approach the office of Big Brother, which work really well. It might be a little on the dull side, really, for grown-ups to read aloud. But it moves quickly enough (and you’ll end up talking about the young sibling anyway while you go through the book).
What did the Little Critter think of It?
I’m not really sure, I haven’t been able to read it with him yet, or haven’t seen anyone else read it to him.
Hopefully, he’ll getting some of the lessons this book is trying to teach and model, because he needs to start applying them the day that this posts (whenever that is).
So, what did I think about I Am a Big Brother?
It’s short, it’s sweet, perhaps overly sweet. But if I start complaining about Picture Books being too sweet, I’m never going to finish. (and will come across more like Oscar the Grouch than I want to)
It delivers just what anyone who picks his book up should expect, and will hopefully be useful to parents wanting to distract and/or instruct a new older sibling.
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