Darling Baby

by Maira Kalman

Overview

Beloved artist Maira Kalman shows us that a darling baby is all you need to see everything with new eyes

Based on the journal she kept during the first months she spent with her new granddaughter, Maira Kalman brings to life the tiny and grand moments of one summer by the sea, brimming with beauty and love. Like the classics Tell Me Again About the Night I was Born and More, More, More Said the Baby, this book offers young children an irresistible window into a time when they were the center of their family's world. New parents and grandparents will delight in the exploration of how nothing makes an ordinary day more extraordinary than sharing it with a baby.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316330626
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,106,746
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Maira Kalman is a celebrated artist, designer, dancer, storyteller and the co-creator of Why We Broke Up, a Printz Honor award-winning title, and author of Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of John J. Harvey, and the illustrator of Kirsten Gillibrand's New York Times bestseller Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote.

Her accomplishments are vast: She has published many books for children and adults, performed her work as an opera and as a dance, she has designed fabric, makeup colors and theatre sets.  She has a show upcoming at the Eric Carle Museum celebrating her work and is currently collaborating on a piece with Mikhail Baryshnikov. She currently lives in New York City.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

November 15, 1949

Place of Birth:

Tel Aviv, Israel

Education:

New York University, 1967-70

Website:

http://www.MairaKalman.com

Editorial Reviews

04/12/2021

This picture book by Kalman (Bold & Brave), based on journal entries, records moments of beauty and mystery for a new grandchild, the “darling baby” of the title. “Today a thousand tiny silver fish jumped out of the water at the same time. They arced over the water and quickly dove in again, disappearing in the wet green sea.” In her signature style, Kalman paints the fish soaring like spray from a fountain. Some experiences are shared with the child: naps on a blanket, parties with “cheery cherry pie.” (A man wonders how to take the pie home: “I will put it in my hat,” he decides.) Everything is fair game, even the turtle that the narrator finds on the beach before realizing that it is dead: “One minute I was so happy. The next, so sad.” Though “darling baby” is still young (“I will carry you because you can’t walk yet”), the book hints that it is never too early to teach a child how to see, and Kalman, bringing intensely personal reflections and paintings alive in brilliant colors, assembles vignettes that represent the work of noticing: “The water has been blue and green and gray and black and pink.” Ages 4–8. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Kalman’s ebullient illustrations, delightful portraiture, and idiosyncratic phrasing imbue the quotidian with complex (sometimes mysterious) meaning and weight. "—Kirkus

"...intensely personal reflections and paintings alive in brilliant colors."—Publishers Weekly

"Kalman strings together elegant yet simple vignettes into an ebullient and sophisticated family album, and the result will resonate with readers young and old."—SLJ

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2021

K-Gr 3—Kalman turns a diary into a deeply personal and intimate picture book, yet also explores the common human experience of a grandparent spending time bonding with a new grandchild. A handwritten irregular text and gouache paintings with a bold color palette bring life into beach scenes; Grandma imparts wisdom through whimsical observations both mundane and profound, and by addressing the baby directly, develops a sense of immediacy that seems to invite readers into a private world. The ebb and flow of life and death is presented as part of the natural process. Pitch perfect pacing is aided by the shift in colors from day to night scenes. This love letter from grandma to grandchild captures the beginning of their relationship and also serves as a reminder that it is in the sharing of experiences that long-lasting and deep relationships are forged. VERDICT Kalman strings together elegant yet simple vignettes into an ebullient and sophisticated family album, and the result will resonate with readers young and old.—Eva Thaler-Sroussi, Wellesley Free Library, MA

School Library Journal

★ 2021-04-14
A grandmother records beach days spent with her grandchild in lyrical language and expressive artwork.

Kalman’s notes from her shore summer with Darling Baby turn into a gorgeous recounting of shared discoveries (seashells, stones, silver fish, rabbits) and experiences (a lightning storm, a bustling party, a nap on the lawn). Vivid full-bleed spreads deliver Technicolor experiences in vibrant strokes of pigment and words as well—Kalman incorporates hand-lettered text (in alternating emphatic caps and romantic script) into these charming paintings, allowing her voice and her images to seamlessly cohere. Readers bask in Kalman’s bright visions of summer’s sweetness absorbed alongside a child just greeting the world. The pair, at either end of mortality, find stones and shells and note that “Oskar the dog looked unhappy in his sweater.” Kalman’s ebullient illustrations, delightful portraiture, and idiosyncratic phrasing imbue the quotidian with complex (sometimes mysterious) meaning and weight. When waves pull a dead sea turtle back into “the vast ocean,” she tells the babe, “I think that is a good thing. At any rate, it is a thing. I am telling you this because I know you will understand.” Readers old and young will recognize the profound mutuality felt between grandmother and grandchild throughout this enchanting book, straightforward in affect but brimming with love. Its small trim emphasizes the intimacy of their relationship.

Incantatory pictures and words project a fresh world for people of all ages. (Picture book. 3-6, adult)

Kirkus Reviews