SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About/Contact
  • Previews
  • Reviews
  • Manga
  • All Ages
  • Young Adult
  • Interviews
  • News

January 12, 2017 by Brigid Alverson

Review: ‘King Baby,’ by Kate Beaton

January 12, 2017 by Brigid Alverson   Leave a Comment

king-baby-cover-cropped

King Baby
By Kate Beaton
Scholastic, Grades Pre-K to 5

Kate Beaton, best known for her side-splittingly snarky comics about moments in history or literature, branches off in a new direction with her children’s book King Baby. The drawing is simpler, she uses color, and its humor is gentler and more straightforward. This is appropriate because she’s writing for a different audience—not witty twentysomethings but preschoolers. And she knows how to read the room.

king-baby-coverThe first few pages chronicle the triumphant arrival of King Baby: The adoring visitors, the cute toys and outfits, and the joys of cuddling with this egg-shaped bundle of joy. “But your king also has many demands!” he reminds us, in a double-page spread that lists them: “Feed me!” “Burp me!” “Bounce me!” His attentive parents obey his commands and admire his achievements, looking a bit frazzled along the way. And slowly, King Baby morphs into a toddler—first he stretches, rolls, and finally crawls across the floor to get a toy, then he walks. In one wonderful two-page spread, Beaton shows him following a zig-zag path, a la Billy of the Family Circus, occasionally intersecting with a cat, and getting a little more grown-up looking at each stop. Just as the test of a good chef is whether they can make a simple omelet, the test of a good cartoonist is how they handle simple material. Beaton is superb, aging up her baby slowly and convincingly as he meanders across the page.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

That’s all very well, but how is it to read aloud? Pretty good, I’d say. Although the drawings are simple, Beaton scatters many of them across the pages, so there are lots of things to point to. The language is simple, so early readers can read the story on their own, but it’s also emphatic enough that grownups can ham it up a bit when reading aloud.

king-baby-spread

At first glance, King Baby appears to be more picture book than comic: It has a larger trim size than most graphic novels, roman typeface rather than the stylized hand lettering of comics, and blocks of type that sit apart from the pictures. The drawings float free on the white page, unconstrained by panels. On the other hand, those drawings are often sequential, as in the fantastic sequence of the baby trying to get his toy: The baby is at one end of the two-page spread, the toy duck at the other, and in a sequence of horizontal bands, we see him tip over, wriggle, and squirm toward his goal. Beaton also makes use of word balloons from time to time.

Either way, this is an ideal book for reading aloud or independently. The baby is cute (despite having no neck) and the situations are funny and familiar to many children, especially those with a younger sibling on the way. Because as King Baby grows up and sets aside his crown, a new member of the royal family appears: Queen Baby.

king-baby-image

Filed under: All Ages, Reviews

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Brigid Alverson

Brigid Alverson, the editor of the Good Comics for Kids blog, has been reading comics since she was 4. She has an MFA in printmaking and has worked as a book editor and a newspaper reporter; now she is assistant to the mayor of Melrose, Massachusetts. In addition to editing GC4K, she writes about comics and graphic novels at MangaBlog, SLJTeen, Publishers Weekly Comics World, Comic Book Resources, MTV Geek, and Good E-Reader.com. Brigid is married to a physicist and has two daughters in college, which is why she writes so much. She was a judge for the 2012 Eisner Awards.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

May 2023

My New Life as a Cat, vol. 1 | Review

by Brigid Alverson

April 2023

Berrybrook Middle School by Svetlana Chmakova | Series Review

by Brigid Alverson

April 2023

Call the Name of the Night, vol. 1 | Review

by Brigid Alverson

January 2023

Andy Warner's Oddball Histories: Pests and Pets | Review

by Brigid Alverson

January 2023

My Sister, the Cat, vol. 1 | Review

by Brigid Alverson

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Watch The Yarn LIVE with Kate DiCamillo at ALA!

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Heists, Celebrity, and Mystery: An Interview with Nicholas Day About The Mona Lisa Vanishes

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Suee and the Strange White Light | This Week’s Comics

by Lori Henderson

Heavy Medal

More Mock-Newbery Titles Needed: Share June Suggestions Now

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

“Enough with the chicken noises.” A guest post by Sean Ferrell

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Trying Something New: SPEED ROUND w/ Marla Frazee, Doug Salati, Dan Santat, and Amina Luqman-Dawson

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Many Shapes and Moods of Yokai Inhabit Manga

LibraryPass’s Comics Plus | Reference Database Review

The Comics of COVID | Stellar Panels

PEN America and Trust Project Release Newsroom Transparency Tracker | News Bites

4 Adult Crossover Titles for Teens to Read This Summer | We Are Kid Lit Collective

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023