Baboon

by Kate Banks, Georg Hallensleben (Illustrator)

On his first trip into the world, a baby baboon meets a very slow turtle and concludes that the world is slow. But then, as his mother takes him farther afield, he sees much more: he watches a hungry crocodile, a thundering herd of elephants, a swift gazelle, a rhinoceros. He feels the heat of a fire, the softness of grass, the warmth of the sun. Throughout the day, everything he experiences expands his understanding, and when night falls, he has seen with his own eyes that the world is a big and varied place.

With its simple, rhythmic text and bold, impressionistic jungle pictures, Baboon is a book to share with children as they explore their own new worlds.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, The World

28 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Kate Banks has written many books for children, among them Max’s Words, And If the Moon Could Talk, winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and The Night Worker, winner of the Charlotte Zolotow Award. She grew up in Maine, where she and her two sisters and brother spent a lot of time outdoors, and where Banks developed an early love of reading. “I especially liked picture books,” she says, “and the way in which words and illustrations could create a whole new world in which sometimes real and other times magical and unexpected things could happen.” Banks attended Wellesley College and received her masters in history at Columbia University. She lived in Rome for eight years but now lives in the South of France with her husband and two sons, Peter Anton and Maximilian.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/katebanks

Reviews

[Shiyun li]

The book tells the first journey baby baboon meets the world with his mother. Baboon is curious, everything he sees is new and fresh. With more and more he sees, his view of the world broadened, and he gradually knows that the world is a big and varied place. I especially like the impressionistic style illustration: it is just like see from the baby baboon's eyes, the world is an impression, vague, but real.

[Danielle Monroe]

This book would be great to use to help children understand generalizations. A baboon just came into the world and his mother is showing him around. With everything he sees, he makes a generalization about the world.

[Carrie Gelson]

Love the rhythm of the language and the soft gentle story of little baboon and mother exploring the world.

[Betsy]

A favorite 1-on-1 read-to book. Good, calming bed-time story.

[summerside]

The story is just ok but I love the picture.

[Peacegal]

The world is a big and sometimes confusing place for all children, human and animal alike. In this gentle story, a baby baboon explores and learns about his world of the African plains.

[Mely]

An enjoyable book about animals in the savanna and tropical forest from a little baboons perspective. A calm and simple story.

[Kelly]

Lovely little story of a young baboon discovering the world for the first time.

[Sean Harding]

Banks Vault #21
The beauty and the poetic of a young one exploring and discovering the world about them.
A great read by a fascinating author.

[Jeani]

Nice book.

[Olivia Bailey]

This is a good book to read to students to help them expand their understanding of the world. They could take apart the meanings that the baboon deiscovers in the book. This can relate to a social studies lesson about the world. Students can learn their place in the world and how they can help.

This can be an inspirational book to write poetry. Each line could be "The world is..." and the next line short explain how it is. The students can use the book as a model on how to make a poem. I would also model it since to took an idea from this book.

[Ellen]

Nice, if not terribly memorable. I'm fond of Kate Banks and I love the idea of the little baboon exploring his immediate world while staying within arms' reach of his mother, who provides a contextually wise and warm explanation for everything he (she?) sees. The illustrations seem a bit lazy, but overall it's a sweet read.

[Matthew]

This is the stor of an infant baboon that is just learning the ways of the world on a tour with her mother. Like other books that Kate Banks has written, this is a soothing reassuring tale about building understanding through experience and a mother's reassurance that the world is wonderful place if you only know to proceed with caution.

[Mary]

This is a great book to read to a small child who is learning how big the world can be. There are so many different parts to the world, and it is important to learn how they all work together. The pictures in this book are lovely, and the message it carries spurs dialogic reading for children and their caregivers.

[Jayna]

Ages 2 and up

A little baboon oberves the world and asks his mom questions about whether the world is always like he is currently experiencing it.

This would be a good book to read to your child and then talk about what they see in the world.

[Sophie Landrum]

Especially sweet-we love anything by Kate.

[Corinne]

Story of a baby baboon exploring the world and meeting animals for the first time. Includes descriptive words for the world.

[Gail]

I liked the story and even the pictures, but they were all too dark.

[Lisa]

I love this book. The little baboon views the world on the back of his mother. He describe what the world is like through his eyes. A great book to celebrate the wonders of the world.

[Joe Gardner]

All about growing up and discovering the world around you.

[Sarah]

We follow baboon and his mother through their habitat, learning animal names along the way. Baboon is beginning to understand the vast size of his world. Illustrations are muted and dark - too dark.

[Danielle]

Awfully sweet and contemplative.
A baby baboon learns about the world, how large it is, how much it contains.

[Nadine in NY Jones]

quiet, beautiful and mysterious