My baby is a big boy......sob! (My First Day at Nursery - Becky Edwards)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	My First Day at Nursery - Becky Edwards
Date:	11/09/08 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Aimed more at the parents.

Disadvantages: Not what i would consider a first reader book.

I have previously reviewed a book on "the first day at nursery", the previous book concentrated on persuading the child reader (or in my case listener!), that nursery would probably be a little scary but an experience they would soon love.
The book I will now review is a similar book, content wise but gives the impression that this is aimed more towards the mother and father reading the story to the child, and maybe deal with a few of their insecurities towards their child suddenly going from being their "baby" to almost a school child..... And trust me I speak from experience, my youngest Connor starts nursery in two weeks. It really makes me sound harsh, I was upset when my daughter went through this a few years ago, but I always knew I would have more children to endure this experience with, but the "baby" is likely to be my last and the thought that he is no longer a baby is quite depressing!

The book I will now review is "My first day at nursery" by Becky Edwards and Anthony Flintoft.

The story starts with a picture of a very apprehensive looking little girl, eating her breakfast or at least picking at it with a grimace on her face with the statement above her head "this is a very important day for me, today is my first day at nursery".

From this point it skips straight to the moment mummy leaves the little girl at the new nursery with the statement "I want my mum" in bold text across the top of her new teachers head, as she gently moves the child away from her waving and slightly upset looking mother.

From that moment on the book endeavours to show how fickle a child can be, this again is something that many, not so new parents can vouch for. The times I have took my daughter to her childcare when she was little, and I have had to be forcibly removed from the premises whilst she is screaming blue murder. I have literally stood outside the building crying, thinking I am causing untold damage on my child, when one of the helpers has come out to tell me that she stopped crying three seconds after I had left the building and that she is now happily painting..... Cowbag!

The book shows all the different activities available for a child to do at nursery's, with the statement "I want my...", and after every page and the multitude of activities takes over and more friends are made the statement reduces down to eventually the mother comes to collect the child, after probably spending all day worrying, to be told the child doesn't want to go home, and would now rather stay at nursery...... again cowbag!

This is a lovely warm, feel good book with plenty of child friendly text, perfect to read to a child, but is in my opinion not really a "first reader" book.
The illustrations are also lovely, clear and vibrant, across the tops of the pages are smaller pictures of random toys, these are to frame each page and piece of text on the page.

I have to be honest I didn't purchase this particular book, this is a "Borrow" from the library, but after researching the book on Amazon -

Paperback (which is the format I am reviewing) start at £3.50 new, obviously cheaper used.
Hardback from £11.75 new and again cheaper second hand.

For more information on this and other titles available visit - www.bloomsburymagazine.com

Thanks for reading x

Summary: A book to soothe the parents of a nursery aged child.