Baby book review: Clive is a Teacher by Jessica Spanyol

Marian’s review

Marian reading Clive is a Teacher by Jessica Spanyol

Mommy keeps reading Clive is a Teacher to me, but I want to know what that walking baby is building on the lego table. The library is so fun — there are these babies that walk, and they can do all sorts of things. I usually eat the legos, but the walking baby seems to be stacking them. I wonder why? He hasn’t put a single one in his mouth. That’s weird. Mommy is making me pose with this book, but as soon as she’s done with pictures, I’m going to go over there and see what this walking baby is up to. I want to help. Okay, this does seem to be a nice book and all. It has pages I can turn. But it’s no walking baby.

Margaret’s review

Book cover of Clive is a Teacher by Jessica Spanyol

Soon after I started reading Clive is a Teacher by Jessica Spanyol, Marian went to investigate a toddler building a tower out of legos. But another toddler came and sat beside me, eager to be read to! So instead of reading the book to Marian, I read it to this little boy, who is a regular at the library. What drew me to this board book were all the diverse children on every page. There’s no actual story here, but it’s a nice little snapshot of Clive role-playing as a teacher and teaching all sorts of things to other children, like art, science, dance, etc. Something I would not have noticed if I had read this to Marian instead of the little toddler boy is how important names are in the book. I didn’t know how obsessed with names toddlers can be! But Spanyol names each child in the book, and sure enough, every time I turned a page the little boy was pointing and asking, “What’s her name?” “How about his?” It was very cute. Note to self: If I ever write a board book, make sure to name all the characters! I also liked that the names were diverse.

Overall, while I liked the book, the boy I read it to really liked it. Everyone was named, they were all doing activities he could identify. He seemed very satisfied when we finished. I wished it was a bit longer, but it’s not written for me.

Leave a Reply