Baby book club: Hug This Book! by Barney Saltzberg and Fred Benaglia

Welcome to another Baby Book Club! This month, baby librarians Tilly and Marian discuss the silly and interactive book Hug This Book! by Barney Saltzberg and Fred Benaglia.

Tilly: This is a good listening book. There are some good rhymes in it, and it’s all about loving books! I love books so I approve of this book. What do you think? Do you like books too?

Marian: I LOVE books! They’re my favorite toy ever. I gather a couple books first thing in the morning and read on my Elmo couch. And then I make Mommy read to me. Sometimes she’s busy and I have to hit her with the book to get her attention, which is silly. Why isn’t she reading too? I ignored this book until Mommy got to the tickling page, and after that I really liked it. It needed to start with the tickling.

Tilly: I get tickled a lot! I laugh a lot but Mummy says I don’t like it. That’s confusing. I like the page in this book about reading it in the bath. I have a book that I read in the bath (it changes colour when it gets wet!) but this isn’t a book that Mummy lets me read in the bath, so the book lied a bit. Do you read in the bath? Where is your favourite place to read?

Marian: Baths are scary!!! Mommy tries to bring books to the bath, but that’s not going to convince me that baths are fun. I hate baths. My favorite place to read is my Elmo couch, and also in front of my bookshelves. I like to pile all my books around me and read. That way, I have lots of choices.

Tilly: Oh, I read like that too! I like having lots of books read at the same time. It’s like a medley of books. There’s also a page in this book that says you can read it upside down. I do that sometimes! I read books upside down. Mummy thinks that’s because I don’t know how to read but I think it’s because I’m very smart and can read upside down. What do mummies know, anyway?

Marian: Obviously they know very little. I didn’t like it when Mommy turned the book upside down and grabbed it from her and turned it the right way. She doesn’t know what she’s doing! I’m impressed you can read upside down! You must be very smart.

Tilly: You must be very smart too, if you know how to read a book! There’s a singing page too! That’s neat. I like singing. Do you have a favourite page in this book?

Marian: I have two favorite pages: the kissing page and the page where you can read the book in the air. I like the kissing page because I can kiss the book! Mommy was really surprised when I kissed the book on that page, but I don’t know why!? It said I could kiss the book! I think it may be because I hit Mommy in the face when she asks for a kiss, but she kisses me more than anyone and the book probably doesn’t get kissed that often. I like the up in the air page because I know up, and it’s fun!

Tilly: I know up too! That’s my best word! This was a very pretty and lovely book! I liked it lots. Thank you for discussing it with me, Marian!

Marian: Thank you for leading the discussion! I’m glad our books were still the same, even though you had the board book version and I had the picture book.

Check out our other baby book clubs!