I've been reading the Frances canon to Jill. She sits for a longer story now, and I am so very tired of princess books. Frances is a badger-scented breath of fresh air.
We love spunky, song-singing Frances and her mishaps. However, Jill and I have a few (minor) complaints too.
In A Baby Sister for Frances, Baby Gloria is only shown on the first page! On every consecutive page, we had little conversations about which badger was Frances, and where Baby Gloria could be.
Bread and Jam is my favorite, because of the food of course! The sack lunches that Albert and Frances bring to school are just lovely, with cardboard salt shaker for hard-boiled eggs, black olives, and cup custards, which I can only assume are pudding cups.
I told Jill that a cup custard is a tiny yogurt. Poor pudding deprived child.
Don't get me started on the badger confusion in Best Friends for Frances. Gloria is almost the same size as Frances, and her sometimes-misogynist friend Albert is only slightly bigger. I just make random guesses as to who's who in this one.
Back to A Baby Sister for Frances, there's a small person who lives in my house who is going to be a big sister in the future, and I'd love to find some New Baby stories that Don't Involve Jealousy.
Take Penny Loves Pink by Cori Doerrfeld. It looks sweet, and not headache-inducing like Pinkalicious. However, Penny loves pink so much, she is pret.ty. upset by a new baby brother. "Boys are blue." By the end, Penny makes her peace with the brother she's dealt, but are there any "new baby" books that are NOT about jealousy?
I only know of one.
I don't own The New Baby (Usborne First Experiences) yet. The New Baby is illustrated by the same Stephen Cartwright who hides a tiny duck on every page of every book he illustrates. I bought it for a friend many years ago because it was NOT a book about sibling jealousy, but rather a book about preparing for and the arrival of a New Baby.
Bonus: the mother in this story breastfeeds, which is rare in children's literature. Gloria the badger is bottle-fed, which I am certain is not biologically accurate.
I'd love to start a collection of new baby books that don't involve jealousy, so if you know of any others, please share!
