“More More More,” Said the Baby
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Lap Listeners stage.
Why it fits Lap Listeners (for babies in their first year, when books are about your voice, not the plot)
Three love stories in which grown-ups chase, catch, and kiss their babies. The refrain gives babies words for wanting affection again and again. A Caldecott Honor book that feels like a hug.
What makes it special
Williams captures the exact physical vocabulary of adult-baby love: the chase, the scoop, the belly kiss. Her gouache paintings, thick and bright as finger paint, won a Caldecott Honor for feeling like joy looks. Three different families, three different skin tones, one universal appetite for more.
From the publisher
Three babies are caught up in the air and given loving attention by a father, grandmother, and…
About Vera B. Williams
Vera B. Williams (1927–2015) wrote and illustrated picture books about working-class families, told with a bright palette and hand-lettered text. She received two Caldecott Honors, for A Chair for My Mother and for "More More More," Said the Baby.
She took a BFA in graphic art from the experimental Black Mountain College in 1949 and did not begin her children's-book career until her late forties; a committed peace activist, she spent a month in a federal prison camp in 1981 after her arrest at a women's blockade of the Pentagon. Her young characters were ethnically diverse, usually urban and rarely well-off.
Also by this author: A Chair for My Mother · Cherries and Cherry Pits
More from “Faces Like Mine, Faces Like Yours”
This book is part of The Best Books for Babies: 30 Teacher Picks (Lap Listeners) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.