Stay My Baby

In Lana Button’s board book, Stay My Baby, simple rhyming text offers young children the reassurance that, as they grow, they will always remain a baby in their caregiver’s heart.

The photographs-as-illustrations work with the text to create a gentle, inclusive image of all the ways babies and caregivers interact and love one another. Babies will almost certainly enjoy the images of beautifully diverse families living and loving together. Taken together with the text, the book is somewhat interactive as it provides a few body part references (e.g. toes and fingers) for reader and child to find on their own bodies.

Stay My Baby will be enjoyed in our youngest nurseries and, as such, would be a good new baby present. While the message that babies remain in their caregivers’ hearts, even as they grow, feels more adult-centric than child-centric, the whole of the work remains enjoyable. The diversity of families represented deepens the text and provides a greater rationale for including the book on your own child’s shelf.