“Baby goes to market” by Atinuke, illustrated by Angela Brooksbank is a frequent visitor of our reading nook. Yeess, we finally have a cosy reading nook in little gosling’s bedroom. We mostly use it for bedtime stories. It’s got plenty of fluffy cushions and a nice rug with beautiful big green and turquoise leaves to make us feel closer to nature and a soft light.
I got the book to foster little gosling’s curiosity about Africa and keep it as a constant reminder of the continent he was born on. The endearing image on the cover of the baby and mommy looking at each other, playfully and so lovingly also helped :). I love it and I am so glad little gosling is enjoying it as much as I do.
A mama carrying her baby wrapped on her back goes to the market. The baby attracts attention and gets offered various treats (bananas, oranges, roasted sweetcorn, biscuits, coconuts), without mom noticing anything. A “good” baby that he is, he eats one piece of each and puts the rest into the basket on mama’s head. The simple phrasing follows a repetitive and predictable pattern and is very catchy. The story explores fruits and vegetables (baby’s treats and things that mama buys in the meantime), face expressions and reactions (surprised, naughty, curious, clapping, grinning…). It offers a good opportunity to practice numbers and counting backwards from six to one. I find the illustrations gorgeous and uplifting; there is so much colour and so intense, very African.
I like pointing out to little gosling mama carrying the baby on her back. His Zimbabwean and Mozambican nannies used to put him on their backs for his naps when he was a baby. It took him thirty seconds on average to melt down into blissful sleep. I liked it so much and found it so practical, that I also wore him on my back for a while. I was never able to carry him in a towel or one of the beautifully colored textile shawls I was offered in South Africa, but I admired their dexterity in placing the baby on their backs. I needed my husband’s help and used my baby carrier. Still, when we were out and about, travelling or shopping, moving, it was such a comfortable way of being close, whilst going about my day.
Little gosling likes observing and exploring the details on each page. He claps with the baby when he gets the chin-chin biscuits, giggling at the sound of “chin-chin” :))). He particularly likes it when the baby is being “naughty” and the sound of “flip-flops” (still struggling to say that one right :P). He shows me the cover picture inside the book and he squeals with excitement when mama realises it was baby who put all the goodies in the basket and squeals with endearment and caresses the page at the image of baby and mama looking at each other, mama gently touching baby’s hand.
Such a lovely, cheerful and effortlessly educational book centred on a mom and baby going about their daily life together.
