Hellobee

by: Mrs. Carrot

“A cow says…”

“Moo!”

“A sheep says…”

“Baa!”

“Three singing pigs say la-la-la.”

“No no no!” (*insert an insistently wagging little finger here*)

This dialogue was one of the first Baby Carrot ever had – a huge milestone in her verbal and social development somewhere around her first birthday that we owe largely to frequent readings of Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton. Having grown up outside the U.S., I had little familiarity with baby books, and as I began to build Baby C’s library, Sandra Boynton’s vast collection of board books featuring short, catchy rhymes and silly animals were on nearly everyone’s recommendation list.

Moo, Baa, La La La! holds a special place in our hearts because it was the first book we read to Baby C after bringing her home from the hospital, and it remains one of our favorites to this day, but over the past 20 months, a number of other Boynton books have made their way into our regular reading repertoire. It would make for too long a blog post to spotlight all of Boynton’s books – there are over 50 and counting! – but Baby C insists that these are must haves for everyone’s bookshelf.

Horns to Toes
14 pages
Recommended Age: 0-4

This is one of Boynton’s older books, and proof that her work is truly timeless. It uses some adorable fuzzy creatures with horns and tails to teach little ones about body parts. Baby C loves to leaf through this book after dinner time and point to all her own (and mom and dad’s) corresponding body parts. I anticipate many questions about our lack of horns and tails once her sentence structure gets stronger in a few months.

Blue Hat, Green Hat
14 pages
Recommended Age: 0-4

Also known as the “Oops!” book in our house, we keep this one in the bathroom and read it almost nightly while getting Baby C ready for bed after her bath. The book follows a silly turkey that loves to put on clothes in any way but as intended. It’s a great way to teach colors, as well as animals, and to make funny noises when pointing to the turkey getting it all backwards.

The Going to Bed Book
14 pages
Recommended Age: 0-4

If I ever get a chance to meet Sandra Boynton, the one question I would need to ask her is whether the Noah’s Ark imagery in this one was intentional or coincidental. There’s no religious subtext of any kind here, but I’m just that curious. The book follows a boat/ark/*insert your favorite vessel here* full of animals (and yes, there is only one of each kind, I checked) getting ready for bedtime. They brush their teeth, they put on PJs, and then even do some evening exercises before officially being rocked to sleep. A fun one to read in a rocking chair, especially when kiddo first makes the connection between “rock to sleep” in the book and the actual motion.

But Not The Hippopotamus 
16 pages
Recommended Age: 0-4

The little hippopotamus appears to be a bit of introvert – or maybe she’s just accidentally left out of all the fun activities her animal friends are engaging in. Some of my fellow parent friends once had an intense debate (wine might have been involved) about whether this book – in which (spoiler alert!) the hippopotamus does eventually join into the fun – will do a disservice to kids who are indeed introverts and just don’t feel like cavorting in bogs with their friend frogs.

Pajama Time
24 pages
Recommended Age: 0-4

I admit, Pajama Time is one of my less favorite Boyton books, mostly because I’m a little neurotic about my naturally high energy, hard-to-calm-for-bedtime kid one day breaking into an actual dance before bedtime and claiming it’s OK because the book says so. That aside, though, this is a fun read, a fun dance, and a good way to learn colors and textures, too.

.  .  .  .  .

Despite our vast collection of Boynton’s books, we are missing two of her most popular ones – Are You a Cow? and Barnyard Dance. Are You a Cow? goes through a list of animals, encouraging kids to chime in that they are indeed NOT that animal, and since Baby C is now mastering her use of “no” (yay 2s!), Are You a Cow? may make an appearance in our house soon, possibly as this really cool personalized version that allows you to add your child’s picture into the book. Barnyard Dance focuses on motion – skipping, hopping, bowing, etc., as these motions relate to steps in a dance animals in a barnyard are doing – which is why I hadn’t rushed to get this one just yet, but it will likely end up in our library shortly now that Baby C is diversifying her movements too.

I admit, I didn’t know much about Sandra Boynton until I started writing this post, but once I stumbled onto her hilarious Twitter account, I felt like I needed to get to know her better. Her website is just as irreverent as her social media activity –  she had me at the banner of the deep-in-thought hippo and the tagline “Trying to Think of a Motto Since 1973” – and her biography reads like a chat over coffee with an old friend. Now in her 60s, Boynton started out as an artist, drawing and printing postcards in college, first independently and then as an artist for a major greeting card company. Although her writing career started shortly thereafter in the late 1970s, Boynton continued to illustrate cards and putting her unique animal designs on a wide variety of merchandise for over 20 years.

Married for over 30 years to an athlete and fellow writer, with whom she collaborated on a number of books, Boynton epitomizes the mantra of following one’s heart. In addition to her vast collection of books for kids (and a few for adults!), all illustrated by her with characters she initially created and developed in her greeting cards, Boynton also followed her passion for music by creating a number of music albums and videos for kids, featuring huge names in country and pop music, and acting. Her discernible animals can be found in plush versions, jewelry, and merchandise via Zazzle.

In keeping with Boynton’s pursuit of happiness theme, the most interesting tidbit I discovered about her is that she is essentially a one-woman shop and show, despite selling over 60 million copies of her books, hundreds of million of greetings cards and beyond. Every instance in which her characters appear are Boynton’s own projects – she does not license her characters to be used by other content creators and follows her interest, gut and heart when taking on a project or partnership. Thus, there are very few crafts/activities available using her characters and books, though there are a few inventive ones created by Boynton’s admirers. But since the body of Boynton’s work is so innumerable, there’s no shortage of resources to entertain a kid (at heart) of every size.

Do you have a favorite Sandra Boynton book?