All Fall Down

The hands down favorite around here right now is a library book, All Fall Down by Helen Oxenbury. Oxenbury writes books for babies--not kid books in board book form. This book has four pages, each with one line of a rhyme, each describing a motion that even stuffy mamas like me can easily act along. (Yup, stuffy. I'm having a heck of a time learning to "roar" like a proper lion in one of his other books, but that's another story.) There's no plot, just rhyme, action and drawings of colorful babies at play.

The illustrations of bright, bouncy babies just make you smile. I love the way she captures the movement of new walkers (and their squeezable diaper-padded bums!) in this picture in particular:


The highlight of the book, of course, is the last page, where the babies "all fall down." We started off tipping slightly as we read this page, and after a few dozen repetitions (four pages, remember) we were both lying flat on the floor full of belly laughs. And then, after three failed attempts, I had to hide the book up high so that we could proceed on to lunch without tears. So I think that means it's a hit.