Skip to main content

Welcome: A Mo Willems Guide for New Arrivals



Welcome: A Mo Willems Guide to New Arrivals
By Mo Willems
Hyperion Books for Children, Disney Book Group, 2017. Picture Book.

Mo Willems. That name is read on a book and authors, parents, and children alike will all smile knowing that something good is about to be read. And this book is no different. It is a picture book for the very youngest readers—the babies in the world. It welcomes the newcomers to the world and then explains (similar to an instruction manual) what they will (or might) experience. There is a lot more text in this book than one might expect for a book for babies. But this is the type of book to read to little ones who haven’t figured out how to crawl or toddle yet. This book is perfect to read to the babies that are still enchanted with cuddling, sleeping, eating, and pooping. This is a way for parents to start the habit of reading while also expressing love and learning how to talk to babies (often “while we read this book together” as is the most recurring refrain). So, if you know a little one who likes to sit and read with you…and isn’t old enough to toddle away yet—this is the book to read. Or, if you happen to know someone who has just had a baby or is about to have a baby—this is the book to give them. So much is expressed in the pages of this book. And it is a good way for baby to learn that books can help us figure out the world and for parents to learn that books can help us get quality time with baby.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...

Review: The Teacher of Nomad Land

The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story By Daniel Nayeri Montclair, NJ: Levine Querido, 2025. Historical fiction. 181 pgs. In 1941 Iran, 13-year-old Babak will do anything to stay with his younger sister Sana, who is 8. After their father is killed during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, the siblings are left orphaned and Babak takes over guardianship to prevent the two from being separated. Carrying his father's blackboard on his back, Babak and Sana set off from Isfahan to find the nomadic tribes as they make their yearly trek across the mountains. Along the way, they encounter a suspicious man named Vulf, a friendly Englishman with a name that means cabbage, and a Jewish boy named Ben who has Vulf hot on his heels. As he is known for doing, Daniel Nayeri weaves a highly readable adventure with threads of philosophy about God, the ties of family, and musings about how cultures can reconcile across differences. The setting of this novel is ingeniously unique, and a lengt...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...