The Baby Goes Beep

by Rebecca O'Connell, Ken Wilson-Max (Illustrator)

See how the baby goes
Beep
Boom
La
Flip
Yum
Splash
Smooch!
Busy Baby!

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Childrens, Family, Fiction, Juvenile

32 pages, Hardcover

First published July 18, 2003

Reviews

[Shanshad Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I can't figure out how to disconnect the board book and the hardcover, I'll have to note things here. I give five stars to the hardcover which is by far one of my favorite read alouds for any child under two years old.

I give only three stars for the board book which is a trimmed down version of the same said book. It cuts out one repetition of the action word and completely breaks up the reading beat. I found myself adding the missing text back in to balance the read. Really am not a fan of board book versions that scale back a book, especially a book as simple as this one.

[Hyrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a chilling reminder of how everything fun like bath time is really just a ploy to get me to sleep. I'm going to be much more suspicious of any time my parent's pay attention to me.
This book really opened my eyes to the horror of what people are capable of when their baby doesn't want to go to sleep. I know that parent's aren't bad.... they just do bad things like give me baths when they are sleep deprived. Just be aware.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a children's book which is used to teach kids how to read by making virtually every word on the page be an onomatopoeia.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my favorite storytime books. I've read this book twice now at my baby storytime and it went over really well both times. The adults pick up on the repetition of the sounds and said them along with me. This time reading it I made motions to go along with the sounds.
Beep- touched the tip of my nose like we beep in Wheels On the Bus
Boom- hit my free hand on my thigh
La- gestured with palm face up
Flip- pointer finger in circles
Yum - rubbed my belly
Splash - spread fingers on my free hand like we do for Twinkle, Twinkle
Smooch - blew kisses
Shh - finger to lips (read softer)

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUCH A GREAT BOOK. This works for toddler storytime for little ones who like making noises and acting out the motions with their grown-ups, and works great for baby storytime where the grown-ups can soothingly make the noises on each page as a group together. Each page shows a normal part of life as a baby, whether it's eating, banging on things, giving kisses, or snuggling to sleep.

Only downside to this book is that the baby is white, and doesn't need to be. A 2018 version of this book would, hopefully, do better in that way. Other than that it's perfect.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

picture book (baby, toddler)
the baby (pictured on the front cover) makes a lot of rhythmic noise with a nice pattern that the audience can follow along (and repeat over the course of the book).
a great, short and sweet book with colorful pictures that works with large crowds (even when not everyone can see the pages).

[Jolynne Dougherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that one of my early literacy instructors really liked for babies and toddlers. I think it would be a good book for reading one-on-one with a baby. The repetition worked well in storytime. My kiddos enjoyed blowing kisses along with the story. Bright and engaging pictures, simple text.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, not amazing or brilliant. But I don't suspect many of the books I'm looking for to use in Baby Storytime will qualify there. Good thing we only are reading one book per storytime! I will probably like this more after I use it with babies. Until then, it's just a "meh" for me.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

March 2019 - I've used this one for toddler storytime several times, and it's great for repetition and audience participation (I usually read each spread twice). The repetition also makes it great for Ben to help read to Eleanor.

[J̵̡̢̢̧̡̨̧̧̧̨̢̡̭̬̟̠̝̼͇̞̯͉̦̘̲̗̲͙̙̦͈̯͈̘̺̫̹̞̪̱̫͎͚̹̣̘̥̫̭̯̣͍̬̫͍̫̖̣̬̹̼̠͙͚̙̼̤̱͉͔̺̻͔̲̥͎̞͉̟̭̗̥̫͊́̎͗̈́̌͆̔̆̏̃̿̑̓̈́̋̓͗̅͆̽̄͗͑̈́͋͐̇̅͐̋̈́̀̈́̌̉͐͌̆̅́̊̈́̓̍́͗̓͋́́̀̈́̇͆̕̚͘͜͜͜͝͠͝͝ · Rating 5 out of 5]

That baby got a nice hair cut.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. A bit basic. Babies might like it.

5/10

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

great sounds effects for a toddler read-aloud

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute story of sounds, rhythm, repetition, leading to bedtime.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the short side, lots of great sound effects for short attention spans.

[Aneesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

They should really have a parental warning when a book has baby's favorite fruits in it.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple picture book with lots of sounds and large eye-catching illustrations.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple book with lots of sound effects for baby to participate with. Good nap- or bedtime-book.

[Milton Louie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning some sounds. B

[Heather Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

lily summer reading 2018, board book, things that go, babies,

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading and singing this book at the same time.

[Victoria Hanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for BST

[Alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably a little simple for my toddler at this point, but still, the repetitive sounds and motions held his attention and he wanted to read it again as soon as we finished the first time.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sparse text show all the different things a baby does all day long playing with his family. Engaging pictures to draw baby's attention as you read. A decent group read aloud, a great one-on-one read.

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

13 month old and I liked the musical nature of this book. Got of summer reading list from the library for the littlest of readers.

[Johanna Florez · Rating 4 out of 5]

it made the baby laugh when I acted out what was on each page

[Hallie Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Terry]

The book was well worth my while after seeing how much my son loved the book and was laughing throughout each reading. It's hard to argue with a book that actually captures the attention of my son and instills a positive association with books during a time in his life where it is difficult to get him to sit still. I did not like this book. I felt underwhelmed by the text, unimpressed by the illustrations, and I felt like an absolute idiot as I read the text, which is a rare thing for me. I have the rhythm of the text stuck in my head like a bad song. One thing I did like about this book, on it's own, was that the baby, on all pages, is in a situation where his parents are there and showing him sweet love, kisses, etc.

To read our full review (complete with the kids' opinions!) go to The Reading Tub®.

[Cassandra Gelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baby. Seriously. Stop beeping.

I guess it's for a little, little, kid. But it is boring. So boring. It doesn't have very many words, but they're very repetitive. The first part is: "The baby goes beep. The baby goes beep beep. The baby goes beep beep beep beep." And then the baby starts making other noises, in the same repetitive sentence structure. It's very boring.

The artwork is okay. I'm not that impressed by it. The baby's not really doing a lot. Clearly there's no story or message here. It's just really repetitive and boring.

That's the kind of thing kids might like. I don't know. But it's certainly not the kind of thing I want to read. This would drive me almost as crazy as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I get it. The baby is making noises. And it drives me crazy when my baby really does make repetitive noises. So, hey, I guess it's realistic if nothing else.

For more children's book reviews, see my website at http://www.drttmk.com.

[Ruhama · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally got my copy in! This picture book won the Charlotte Zolotow honor this year and follows a baby throughout his/her day (I’m guessing it’s a boy, but it could be either). This is a noisy book, and begs to be read aloud and then acted out, especially for anyone with toddlers in the house. I could see older siblings enjoying the rhymes and activities and performing some of them with their baby brother or sister. Illustrator Ken Wilson-Max has bright colors, clever interpretations (e.g. “the baby goes splash” has the baby splashing his/her food, and then the next page “the baby goes splash splash” has the baby in the tub). The endpapers are fun in this book, too, so it may be hard to figure out where to put the pocket and barcode!

[Brandy]

I wasn't going to list the board books as things I actually read this year, but I think once you've read it thirty-five thousand times you're entitled to count it in your totals.

Worth noting: the board book version skips "the baby goes LA," and also condenses the rhythm to a 1-4 (instead of 1-2-4), so it's just "the baby goes BEEP; the baby goes BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP." Still, my toddler loves this book, and has taken to flipping to the back page ("the baby goes shhhh") and pointing to it when he's ready for bed. There are worse things.