Monday, May 5, 2014

Shhh! Don't Wake The Royal Baby by Martha Mumford

Rating 4 out of 5
Title: Shhh! Dont Wake The Royal Baby
Author: Martha Mumford
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens (August 6, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 140884463X
ISBN-13: 978-1408844632
Age Range: 2-5 years


Ok so I would be lying if I didn't say upfront I was dubious about this book. I thought it would be a silly cash in on the royal baby. I wouldn't have purchased this book for myself, doubtful I would have even borrowed it from the library. So here is a big lesson in don't judge a book by its cover or title/theme, because this book is actually really good.

The books summary is "It’s chaos at the Royal Palace – the Royal Baby just won’t go to sleep. Waaaaah! Waaaaah! Waaaaah! The Royal Family has tried everything to pacify the little bundle of joy – from proferring the golden royal dummy to death-defying parachute jumps with the Queen. But, just when the little one seems to be settling, another disturbance is just around the corner. From yip-yapping corgis to marching guards and noisy party planning, the palace is awash with noise. Will it ever be peaceful enough to lull the baby off to sleep?"

There is a lot going on in this book without you even realising. Firstly I found this a great story for my toddler to highlight that babies can be difficult to get to sleep, and the impact a baby has on a household.

There is repetition and silliness in the text which is fun to read especially the "waaaaah waaaaah!" parts which master 4 found funny. He also got really into the "shhhh baby is sleeping" and would say it with me in a whisper.

The illustrations really make the book. They are so cute and fun I mean who wouldn't smile at seeing The Queen jumping out of a plane and parachuting with her corgi's in tow? and yes it is relevant to the story.

While the pictures clearly represent the current British royal monarchy the text is quite generic so it really is a story about a family coping with a new baby (ok a royal family coping unless in your family you call people the Duke, Duchess, Prince and Queen).

Counting, not sure if this was intentional or not but my son had great fun counting all the corgis on each page as there was usually one or two.





If you took the royal aspect out of the story, it is just a cute, fun story about a family dealing with a newborn baby. Would be good to read for soon to be older siblings so they can start to understand what having a baby around is like.

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