Book Review: Baby Loves Earth

Baby Loves Earth

Written by Jennifer Eckford

Illustrated by Teresa Bellon

30 pages

Published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

Publication date: 2nd June 2020

Summary (from Goodreads):

E is for Elephant, T is for Tree, W is for Warming, and X is for eXtinct in this beautiful ABC book designed to teach very young children about the earth and how it is changing.

Baby Loves is a new range of giftable preschool ABC books that taps into the trends that matter. Stunningly illustrated with a cut-to-white aesthetic, each pocket-sized book is a perfect introduction to a key topic for babies

First impressions: I spotted this on Netgalley and wanted to read it because I am interested in environmental issues, teach about them in school and intend to raise my child to be aware of issues such as climate change and the need to live sustainably.

While the target audience for this is said to be toddlers, there are some very tricky words in here such as atmosphere, biodegradeable, etc. I think that the artwork and simple format will appeal to younger children reading with an adult, and it could be a great starting point for a conversation if you can explain the difficult terminology in a kid-friendly way. However, this would not be suitable for younger readers to access independently.
I would use this in my primary classroom for children aged 7+ as a friendly way to introduce topic-related vocabulary before beginning harder reading tasks.

A Baby Loves Earth is a beautiful and topical book with lots of possible uses, even for children who are older than the target audience. Personally, I am in love with the illustrations so would love to have them as prints or flashcards!

What I liked: Illustration style, particularly the colour palette, the subject matter – the more books about the environment the better as far as I am concerned! I like the feeling when reading this that it will trigger more reading and conversations about important topics – for us it was about the kapok tree which we didn’t know much about before. Read about it and you will be amazed!

Even better if: This book is a little stranded as the apparent target audience will be a bit too young to understand most of the words and children who may benefit from the vocabulary development may reject it because it looks too young. Personally, I like the friendly, accessible format but it may not tick the boxes for everyone.

How you could use it in your classroom: This would be the perfect way to pre-teach some vocabulary and draw out misconceptions or misunderstandings as well as assessing prior learning before beginning a topic about the environment and conservation.