“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) painted working-class family life with a warmth almost no one has matched — her gouache spreads of grandmothers, coin jars, and kitchen-table love earned a Caldecott Honor and permanent classroom shelf space.
Educated at the experimental Black Mountain College and a lifelong peace activist, she came to children's books in her forties and put the families she knew — multiracial, multigenerational, making do — at the center of every story.
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.