View source for Ssssh! Duck Don't Wake the Baby by Jez Alborough

{{infobox2
|title=Ssssh! Duck Don't Wake the Baby
|author=Jez Alborough
|reviewer=Magda Healey
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=A well drawn, well written, well pitched rite-of-passage book for toddlers dealing with the 'new baby' conundrum. Parents and small children will recognise themselves & laugh. A cut above other 'how to deal with siblings' books. It will be read again and again.
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=34
|publisher=Harper Collins Children's Books
|date=September 2007
|isbn=978-0007243556
|aznuk=0007243553
|aznus=0007243553
|cover=0007243553
}}
I liked the previous Duck book by Jez Alborough a lot, and this second offering I came across is up to the same standard, in fact it's even better.

The 'new baby arrives' is one of the favourite subjects for rite-of-passage books for small children (probably beating the potty training, the first day in the nursery and even I-don't-want-to-go-to-bed) and ''Ssssh! Duck Don't Wake the Baby'' joins a long list of books that deal with that theme.

As Duck is family-less in the series, the baby that he's subjected to is not his own Ducking-sibling, but a kid. When he arrives at Goat's wanting to go for a drive, he gets fobbed off: there is no time for a drive as the baby is a) eating b) playing with its toys c) going to sleep. Being the enthusiastic and positive if a bit blunder-prone creature that Duck is, he tries to join in each of the activities and gets whacked on the head with a toy, spat on with the milk and eventually causes a minor catastrophe and, yes, wakes the baby. The goat takes the baby for a drive (in Duck's car) to lull it to sleep while the poor fowl is left to tidy up. It all ends well though and the final tableau of the duck sleeping in the kid's cot, with the kid's dummy in his mouth after having a good drink from baby's bottle is very funny indeed.

As usual with Jez Alborough's books, the artwork is bright and dynamic, literally (in the 'pop up surprise) bursting with action. The faces of the characters are comical and bear instantly identifiable expressions.

Anybody with a baby and an older sibling will recognise the pattern, and many an older sibling will recognise themselves in Duck, who is very much like a toddler himself (despite driving a red truck). 

The text is very short and very simple, almost too simple (which is my problem with a lot of Jez Alborough's books), but this is made up for by the artwork. 

All in all, a great book for toddlers with a baby in the house - and I can't imagine a mother that won't splutter her tea all over the place when faced with the content of the 'pop-up-surprise'. Half star off for a baby goat drinking from a bottle (again!! - as all storybook creatures seem to do). 

Thanks to HarperCollins for sending this to the BookBag.

Another book that has a new baby and a lot of humour is [[I Want a Sister]] by Tony Ross.

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