Oh My Baby, Little One

Oh My Baby, Little One

by Kathi Appelt

When Baby Bird says good-bye to his mama at school each morning, he feels sad. Mama Bird feels sad, too. Sometimes it's hard to be apart. But as Mama Bird says, the love they share is with them always, keeping them close until the best part of the day--when they are together again. This is a  heartwarming story about the universal experience of parents and children being temporarily separated.

Let Mother Bird help you tell your little one how much you love them and that it never changes - even if you are apart. The large water-color pictures are swimming with color and shading to adds a familiar warmth to each scene. There is a musical quality to the rhyming words of Mother Bird, singing her love to her baby before she drops him off for school.

Children who have started preschool, or are about to will be able to relate to the activities Baby Bird does all day long; he sings, plays, swings, listens to a story, naps, and colors. You can ask them if they ever feel like Baby Bird while away from mom, and let them share their stories. They can point to and name the familiar characters, young animals like a lamb, duck, dog, bunny, and pig. The rhymes and cadence will help them memorize the lines, and perhaps start sounding out some of the words with your help.

When I read this book to my niece Emily, she did not quite understand the depth of Mama Bird's feelings being expressed, but she enjoyed the pictures, which sparked many of her own stories of what she does at school. When I asked her if she missed her mommy when she went to school she replied, "Sometimes, but I made friends with another Emily so we play together and its okay."

--Audra

This one is one my son always loves hearing! I think it's because it is about a mommy who goes to work and misses her son and this hits home in our situation. It is a very sweet story that reinforces that the mommy is always thinking of her son, even if they are not together!

--Julie Piller, Sharing Savings with You