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Jump to navigationJump to searchIggy and Me and the New Baby by Jenny Valentine (view source)
Revision as of 10:00, 3 June 2012
, 10:00, 3 June 2012no edit summary
Here at Bookbag we love Jenny Valentine and with good reason. We first met her when we read [[Finding Violet Park by Jenny Valentine|Finding Violet Park]], a startling and original novel for teens. We were even more convinced that she a great YA writer when we read [[Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine|Broken Soup]]. She specialised in kitchen sink dramas for teens which really hit the spot. Then she ''really'' surprised us with the [[Iggy and Me by Jenny Valentine|first of her novels]] for the newly emerging reader - and we were addicted ti the stories of Iggy and Me.
They're all gorgeous stories of family life and the preoccupations of girls in the 7+ age group. There's no naughtiness, nothing to make a child worried or upset and a lot about the positives of growing up. Iggy realises that she's tall enough to go on the climbing wall this year - last years year she wasn't big enough. Flo points out that she's not the smallest in the house as she marks the heights of Iggy's dolls on the height chart. There's no sibling rivalry - just a family with good values and a lot of love.
There's a gentle start at exploring where babies come from, with an explanation of tummy buttons, a look at how Auntie Kate's pregnancy progresses - and the result. It's very well done. There are no euphemisms (or downright untruths - as there were in my day) about where babies come from but it's neatly pitched at a level which will allow a child to either ask more questions if they want or to simply accept what's said. I was blown away by how well it was done.
