Synopsis: This spiral bound robust board book has a mirror on the front cover, easy to turn pages with finger flaps and high quality photos of babies and toys with various expressions: happy, sad, excited and grumpy. Finally there is a memory game where children open flaps to find the answers to questions such as ‘Who was happy?’ There is also a fold out feature with notes for parents and a chart of developmental milestones from 0-18 months.

Review: There are some good features here: lots to talk about and the lift the flap memory game prompts re reading but the advice given by Miriam Stoppard might not appeal to everyone. It’s a fairly intense theory about how to develop ‘emotional continence’ in your baby by celebrating their emotions in their first year ‘crucial because of the special bonding that needs to take place between parent and child’. This might give a guilt trip to those who send young children to nursery or child care for long periods or appear patronising to those parents, who feel themselves well informed and confident with their own approach.

2008-04-15